This masterpiece, painted
when Renoir was thirty-three
and shown in the first
Impressionist exhibition
of 1874, can be regarded
simply as a glimpse of
contemporary life but is in a
sense portraiture also [...]

The models for this painting
were a Nini Lopez with the
nickname ‘Fish Mouth’, and
Edmond Victoire Renoir [...]

Renoir’s younger brother [...] Parisian
journalist, he was a devoted fisherman
and wrote many articles and even
books on fishing [...] , [...]

For the affluent middle classes,
Parisian life usually involved
the regular attendance at
theatrical entertainments
where people went to see
and be seen, which was
possibly more important to
them than the performance

This elegant and famous painting,
one of Renoir's most delicate
evocations of French society,
reflects his delight in attractive
women in privileged circumstances

Nini Lopez, the sitter for this picture
( [...] , [...] ), was one of Renoir's favorite
models, posing for more than a dozen of
his paintings in the mid–1870s [...] , [...]

While both critics and public were so famously
hostile to so many of the paintings on display,
"La Loge" got relatively good press

Renoir initial paintings show the
influence of the artistry of Eugene
Delacroix, and of his friend Claude
Monet with whom he developed
the impressionist style. The influence
of Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet,
and Camille Corot is also seen in his
work [...]