A Loge at the Théâtre des Italiens

c. 1874

Oil on canvas, 97.7 × 130 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris

A young woman in pale blue sits in a theater box, a man at her shoulder. Gonzalès, Manet's pupil by her own account, painted it at the same time as Renoir's La Loge, and shares its theme.

Pale faces and light fabrics stand out against the dark box, in Manet's manner. The theater box was a frequent Impressionist subject, though Gonzalès, like Manet, showed at the Salon.
An earlier state may have been refused by the 1874 Salon; reworked, it was well received in 1879.
Look at the bouquet on the ledge, which echoes the flowers in Manet's Olympia.
Given to the Louvre in 1927 by her son, Jean Guérard.

The models were her sister Jeanne and Henri Guérard, whom she married. Their cool detachment, the museum notes, recalls Manet's refusal to explain a scene.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain