Renoir at the Theatre: Looking at La Loge (Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery) Book

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's La Loge (The Theatre Box), 1874, is one of the masterpieces of Impressionism. Its depiction of an elegant couple on display in a box at the theatre epitomizes the Impressionists' interest in the spectacle of modern life. At the heart of the painting is the complex play of gazes enacted by these two figures. In turning away from the performance, Renoir focused instead upon the theatre as a social stage where status and relationships were on public display. This book unites La Loge with Renoir's other treatments of the subject and with loge paintings by contemporaries, including Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas. Concentrating on the early years of Impressionism during the 1870s, the book explores how these artists used the loge to capture the excitement and changing nature of fashionable Parisian society. Lavishly produced contemporary journals such as La Mode Illustrée included fine hand-coloured engravings showing the latest fashions modelled by elegant ladies in theatre boxes. A rich selection of this little-known graphic material from contemporary Parisian journals, as well as caricatures from the popular press, are also examined.Read More