Georges and Marguérite Charpentier: When Gervais Charpentier died on July 14, 1871, his only son Georges-Auguste (1846–1905), who had been working as a journalist, inherited Bibliothèque Charpentier, the successful Paris publishing house his father had established thirty years previously. Georges Charpentier, young, forward-looking, was interested in naturalism as well as in the developing strain of realism in French writing and published the novels of Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) and Emile Zola (1840–1902), and the work of the literary and art critic Edmond de Goncourt (1822–1896), among many others. Georges was genial and sympathetic, admired by his groundbreaking authors. Flaubert and Zola, personal friends, were godfathers to his sons Marcel and Paul, respectively. For a decade, the publishing enterprise flourished. In 1876, Georges introduced a line of smaller, less expensive illustrated books under the rubric Petite Bibliothèque Charpentier, and, in 1879, he launched an illustrated newspaper, La Vie Moderne (in which his wife Marguérite took an interest, and for which Renoir was engaged as an illustrator). The paper reproduced, and a small exhibition space also called La Vie Moderne presented, work by traditional contemporary painters as well as by several of the Impressionists. Renoir showed there in June 1879, as did Manet in April 1880 and Monet in June 1880.

Georges Charpentier had married, on August 24, 1871, Marguérite-Louise Lemonnier (1848–1904), the older of two daughters of Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier, who lived with his family at various addresses in Place Vendôme, where he was the first to open a fashionable jewelry shop. He had been court jeweler to Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, creating the crown for her coronation (Musée du Louvre, Paris). The couple’s younger daughter Isabelle was a favorite of Edouard Manet (see The Met’s 29.100.56). The young women grew up in an atmosphere of opulent luxury and were famously gracious and hospitable. Marguérite’s well-attended Friday evening salons were held at first on the quai du Louvre and later at 11, rue de Grenelle, on the first floor above the Charpentier publishing offices. She and her husband received various artists, including Renoir, in addition to writers, critics, and politicians, not least the future prime minister Georges Clemenceau, among other members of the upper-middle class who circulated in society. In 1879, one of his contemporaries described Georges Charpentier as “an editor known to all and loved by everyone in the literary world.”[1] He developed financial difficulties in the 1880s, however, and was obliged to sell a controlling interest in his company, though he continued to work as a publisher until after the death of his son Paul in 1895. La Vie Moderne quickly turned into a financial burden and ceased publication in 1883. In reduced financial circumstances thereafter, the couple no longer occupied a highly visible social position nor bought modern paintings, but Renoir remained on friendly terms, corresponding with them both.

The Portrait Commissions: In 1876, the couple ordered a life-size portrait of their daughter Georgette. (The children were Georgette-Berthe [1872–1945], Marcel-Gustave [1874–1876], Paul-Emile-Charles [1875–1895], and Jane-Blanche-Edmée [1880–1940].) The picture of Georgette (Artizon Museum, Tokyo; Daulte 177) illustrates the ease with which Renoir adapted to the elaborations of post-Second-Empire taste. He presented the child in a self-consciously semi-adult seated pose, legs crossed, and described every detail of her costume as well as the expensive, crowded, overstuffed, brightly colored environment in which the family lived. The four-year-old wears a coral necklace and a blue and gold lace-trimmed dress with white petticoats, matching blue socks, and gold slippers. Renoir presented the work at the third Impressionist exhibition of 1877 as number 188. (He also depicted Georgette in a sketch dated 1880, and—a little later—a head study in his linear, classicizing style.) This first family portrait apparently satisfied the parents’ vision of the appropriate and modern because they offered additional commissions for a head of Marguérite in black with lace and gold earrings (Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 2244), which was also shown in 1877, and a pastel of the smiling face of Paul wearing pale blue and white (1878, location unknown), exhibited at the Salon of 1879.[2] Both are intimately related to Madame Charpentier and Her Children, to which Renoir is said to have devoted his full attention for about a month before completing it on October 15, 1878. The price for the picture, which has been variously reported, may have been one thousand or one thousand five hundred francs.

The Salon: The couple believed that to achieve success Renoir must show his work at the Salon, rather than exhibiting with the Impressionists. Both the artist and the sitter intended the group portrait, with near life-size figures, for the Salon scheduled to open in May 1879; meanwhile the painting was installed on the main floor in rue de Grenelle, to be seen by the Charpentiers’ many guests. Renoir was not sure what he thought of it, and asked if several of his friends, among them the painter Berthe Morisot, might call to see it. The artist later remembered that Marguérite was acquainted with members of the Salon committee and assured that it would be installed in a prominent position—at eye level, where, Renoir confessed, he found it looked better than in the Charpentier house. Alexandre Cabanel’s pupil Henri Gervex suggested that it was Cabanel, an established academic artist and member of the jury, who saw to it that the picture was moved from a high, unflattering location to a better one.

The Painting: The design conforms to longstanding historical tradition in that at the center are Marguérite Charpentier and Paul, a mother with her only son, the family heir (an older boy had died two years previously). Renoir carefully balanced the complex composition, which is organized along a diagonal from the lower left. Marguerite embraces Paul; her daughter Georgette is seated in the foreground on the back of Porthos, the family’s Newfoundland dog, given by a client and named for one of Alexandre Dumas’s three musketeers. The predominant use of black and white sets the family, with their animal, apart. Marguérite appears as she has been described—very small, robust, and engaging—with fair skin, dark brown hair, and hazel eyes set in a lively square face with a double chin. Her black evening gown trimmed with Chantilly lace, with its train spread out on the carpet at her feet, is worn with a white fichu finished with black satin bows. (Judging by the lace, she had worn the dress for her earlier Renoir portrait as well.) Her mother patronized the fashion house of the English-born Charles Frederick Worth, who has been called the first couturier, and she, too, may have been his customer. However, because Renoir’s stabs, jabs, and swaths of black pigment are not sufficiently descriptive, it is impossible to tell. Her jewelry must have come from the Lemonnier shop, notably the large brooch in the shape of a daisy (in French, marguerite) with leaves and stem, and a bracelet and ring set with colored stones. In accordance with nineteenth-century practice, notably for formal occasions, Georgette and Paul wear identical pale blue and white, off-the-shoulder costumes, with socks and beribboned shoes (hers with a slight heel, his slippers) of the same bronze color. Because he is only three, Paul’s hair is still in ringlets, and he is in skirts.[3] In fact, small boys everywhere had been dressed in this way for centuries, for practical reasons, until, at five or more, they were “breeched,” or first put into trousers.

The Interior: Beginning in the 1860s, Japanese imports were seen at world’s fairs and sold at fashionable shops, becoming increasingly desirable. Madame Charpentier was captivated by Japonisme, a prevailing trend in stylish Parisian decorating. Her taste is evident in the setting for the picture, which Renoir identified as the “petit salon,” one of the principal rooms on the main floor of the house, where the work is said to have been painted. The atist’s brother Edmond noted in 1879 (pp. 174–75) that the furniture is just as it was: nothing was rearranged. The colorful secondary elements are what appear to be Japanese screens decorated with birds, including peacocks, a Japanese bamboo chair with a matching table which supports a vase of flowers, an elaborately embellished crystal decanter and glasses, and a plate of green grapes. The sofa is upholstered in silk patterned with small bright blossoms.

The Critics: Writers Armand Sylvestre and Théodore de Banville (both published by Charpentier), and such highly regarded art critics as Ernest Chesneau responded positively but tended to focus on the subject. The journalist Charles Bigot mentioned that there was too much yellow and violet; the illustrator Bertall criticized the lack of finish. In accordance with expectations of the time, this very large canvas is richly informative about the sitters and offers a detailed description of the private environment in which they lived. All would have been recognizable to visitors belonging to the Charpentiers’ wide circle of acquaintance. But the effect was achieved without the smooth, silky finish and the precision of detail that typically characterized Salon style. Straight lines and hard contours are largely absent, as is traditional modeling from light to dark. Dense multi-directional strokes describe the animal’s fur and the sitters’ ruffled petticoats, and while there are fluid passages in the background, in general, the brushwork is complex, variable, and visible.

The Impressionist Connection: Renoir was among the painters who organized the first—unsuccessful and loudly maligned—auction of Impressionist works at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris on March 24, 1875. Among the few purchasers was Georges Charpentier, who bought three works that constitute the earliest evidence we have of the publisher’s association with the artist. One is The Angler (private collection; Daulte 103), a small, delicate picture of a gentleman in a straw boater fishing beside a stream and accompanied by a fashionable woman in white seated on the grass. In 1876, in addition to the portrait of Georgette, Renoir completed two paintings of a fashionable lady and gentleman behind a wrought-iron stair railing, which are near life-size and were designed for the staircase in the rue de Grenelle (now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; Daulte 218, 219). The artist was in dire financial straits and beholden to the couple, whom he begged for financial assistance to pay his rent and buy food and other necessities. He completed various small tasks (decorating menus, for example) for Marguérite. On January 15, 1882, while in Italy, he visited Palermo to make a sketch of the composer Richard Wagner (Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Daulte 394) at Georges Charpentier’s request. The collector had also acquired—at an unknown date, from an unknown source—and then, when under financial pressure, sold to Durand-Ruel in 1885, Renoir’s Young Woman, which the dealer titled La Servante (ca. 1875, The Met 61.101.14).

Among other important works the Charpentiers owned, two are noteworthy. One was a major Manet, The Battle of the USS “Kearsarge” and the CSS “Alabama” (Philadelphia Museum of Art),[4] painted in 1864 and bought by Georges in 1878 at auction from the collection of Ernest Hoschedé, a department store magnate and another patron of the Impressionists. Both Manet and Monet attended Marguérite’s Friday evenings. After Monet’s 1880 show at La Vie Moderne, she chose as a gift for her husband—asking (as would have been expected) for a reduced price—The Ice Floes (Shelburne Museum),[5] painted the same year.

Katharine Baetjer 2022

[1] “un éditeur connu du monde entier et aimé de tous les gens de lettres”; see Syène 1879.
[2] For the pastel, see Christie’s, London, July 6, 1971, no. 33, ill. A small head and shoulders portrait of a man in a blue coat with brass buttons in the Barnes Foundation (Daulte 295) may or may not represent Georges Charpentier. See Martha Lucy and John House, Renoir in the Barnes Foundation (New Haven, 2012), pp. 253, 331, no. 142, ill. p. 255 (color).
[3] Comparable costumes—matching, irrespective of sex—are recorded in nineteenth-century photographs. An English example (by J. Russell & Sons of Chichester) from 1867 shows the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, with the Princess of Wales and their three eldest children, Albert (b. 1864), George (b. 1865), and Louise (b. 1867). The boys wear identical white off-the-shoulder dresses with wide sashes. In 1885, Renoir painted Etienne Goujon (b. 1880) in a blue day dress with a white collar and cuffs, that is, “in skirts,” a commonly used expression.
[4] Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein, Edouard Manet: Catalogue raisonné (Paris, 1975), vol. 1, no. 76, ill.
[5] Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné (Paris, 1974), vol. 1, no. 568, ill.

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Renoir. 78.

Georges Charpentier, Paris (1878–d. 1905; commissioned from the artist, possibly for Fr 1500; his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 11, 1907, no. 21, as "La famille Charpentier," for Fr 84,000 to Durand-Ruel for The Met)

Paris. Salon. May 12–June 1879, no. 2527 (as "Portraits de Mme G. C . . . et de ses enfants").

Brussels. Palais des Beaux-Arts. "Troisième exposition annuelle des XX," February 6–March 14, 1886, no. 2 (as "Mme Charpentier et ses deux enfants," lent by M. Georges Charpentier).

Paris. Galerie Georges Petit. "5e Exposition internationale de peinture et de sculpture," June 15–July 1886, no. 124 (as "Portrait de Mme G. C. et ses Enfants," lent by M. Charpentier).

Paris. Galeries Durand-Ruel. "Exposition A. Renoir," May 1892, no. 110 (as "Portrait," lent by M. Georges Charpentier).

Paris. Galeries Bernheim Jeune et Fils. "Exposition A. Renoir," January 25–February 10, 1900, no. 17 (as "En Famille," lent by M. Charpentier).

Paris. Petit Palais, Paris. "Exposition de l'enfance," 1901, no. 1111 (as "Mme Charpentier et ses Enfants," lent by Mme Georges Charpentier).

Brussels. Musée d'Art Moderne. "Exposition des peintres impressionnistes," February 25–March 29, 1904, no. 129 (as "Portrait de Mme Charpentier et de ses enfants," lent by M. Georges Charpentier).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings," May 18–September 12, 1937, no. 22 (as "Mme Charpentier and Her Children").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 148.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971, no. 380 (as "Madame Charpentier and Her Children").

Paris. Grand Palais. "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," September 21–November 24, 1974, no. 38.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, no. 38.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Renoir," October 9, 1985–January 5, 1986, no. 44.

Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age," June 27–September 14, 1997, no. 32.

Art Institute of Chicago. "Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age," October 17, 1997–January 4, 1998, no. 32.

Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "L'Impressionnisme et la Mode," September 25, 2012–January 20, 2013, no. 46.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity," February 26–May 7, 2013, no. 124.

Art Institute of Chicago. "Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity," June 26–September 29, 2013, no. 124.

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT.

Auguste Renoir. Letter to Théodore Duret. October 15, 1878 [published in Ref. White 1984, p. 87], states that it is finished, but that he does not know what to think of it.

Auguste Renoir. Letters to Madame Charpentier. n.d. and November 30, [1878] [published in Ref. Florisoone 1938, p. 35], in two separate letters, requests permission for Mme Manet [Berthe Morisot] and then for Charles Ephrussi and [Charles] Deudon to see it.

Auguste Renoir. Letter to an unknown correspondent. [1879] [published in Hôtel Drouot, Paris, "Peintres en Lettres," June 5, 1991, no. IX, where it is given an erroneous tentative date of June 1880?], referring to the Salon of 1879, states that the painting is at eye level and looks ten times better than at Madame Charpentier's.

Pierre Dax. "Chronique." L'artiste 1 (March 1879), p. 286.

Théodore de Banville. "Salon de 1879, III." Le National (May 16, 1879), p. 2, praises the painting, citing its fine and delicate colorations; calls Madame Charpentier "une de ces reines parisiennes, universellement aimées et respectées, dont les salons sont le rendez-vous de tout ce qui'il y a de célèbre, d'illustre et de spirituel à Paris" (one of these Parisian queens, universally loved and respected, whose salons are the meeting place for all that is famous, illustrious, and spiritual in Paris); notes the smoky atmosphere of the Japanese corner of her Salon from her husband's cigarettes as the price women in attendance have to pay to chat with the likes of writers Alphonse Daudet, Edmond de Goncourt, and Emile Zola; misidentifies the dog as named Turc.

Philippe Burty. "Le Salon de 1879—III: Les portraits." La République française (May 27, 1879), p. 3 [see Ref. White 1984], praises the accuracy of the poses and likens the flesh tones to the velvetiness of a huge pastel.

Armand Silvestre. "Le Monde des arts: Demi-dieux et simples mortels au Salon de 1879." La Vie moderne (May 29, 1879), p. 118.

Charles Bigot. "Salon de 1879: II. La peinture." La Revue politique et littéraire 8 (June 7, 1879), pp. 1155–56, finds freshness, youth, and movement in it, criticizing it only for having too much yellow and violet.

J.-K. Huysmans. "Le Salon de 1879." Le Voltaire (June 10, 1879) [reprinted in Huysmans, "L'Art moderne," Paris, 1883, pp. 58–59], remarks that it is the work of an artist who, though included in the official Salon, is an independent.

Ernest Chesneau. "Le Salon de 1879." Le moniteur universel 160 (June 13, 1879), pp. 810–11 [reprinted in Victor Champier, "L'Année artistique," vol. 2, 1879, p. 108].

Ed[mond]. Renoir. "Cinquième exposition de La Vie Moderne—P. A. Renoir." La Vie moderne (June 19, 1879), p. 175 [reprinted in Ref. Venturi 1939, vol. 2, p. 336 and as "Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Mon frère," Essoyes, 2005], in a letter to Émile Bergerat, relates that no furniture was rearranged in the Charpentier home in preparation for it.

Bertall. "Souvenirs du Salon de 1879." L'artiste 2 (July 1879), pp. 86–87, remarks upon the charm of the subjects but criticizes the picture's sketchiness and lack of finish.

F[rédéric].-C. de Syène. "Salon de 1879. II." L'artiste 2 (July 1879), p. 11.

Arthur Baignères. "Le Salon de 1879 (Deuxième article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 2nd ser., 20 (July 1879), p. 54.

[Jules] Castagnary. "Salon de 1879. 7e article." Le Siècle (July 2, 1879), p. 2, praises its spontaneity and lack of convention.

Auguste Renoir. Letters to Octave Maus. January 3, 4, [5–10], 1886 [published in Ref. Venturi 1939, vol. 2, pp. 227–29].

"Petite chronique." L’art moderne (January 10, 1886), p. 15, describes the painting as one of the most important in the coming exhibition [Brussels 1886].

"Choses du jour." La nation 2 (January 10, 1886), p. 1.

L'emancipation 57 (January 12, 1886), p. 3, describes it as one of the most important paintings in the coming exhibition [Brussels 1886].

"Chronique artistique." Journal de Bruxelles 52 (February 21, 1886), p. 1 [reprinted in L'emancipation 57 (February 21, 1886), p. 1], describes its “opulent color” as “soft, like that of eighteenth-century paintings, but with a hint of vulgarity”.

"A propos du Salon des XX: L'impressionisme II." L’art moderne (February 28, 1886), p. 67, compares the painting to a Madonna and Child subject ("The dog alone should disappear to make way for a sheep."); contrasts its “softened,” “enameled,” and “melted” colors, which had acquired a “patina” from the “chemical work” of time, to the “clashing,” “screaming,” and “loud” shades of Renoir's more recent dance panels ("Dance in the City" and "Dance in the Country"; both Musée d'Orsay, Paris), also on view at the exhibition.

Auguste Renoir. Letter to Madame Charpentier. [Spring 1886] [published in Ref. Florisoone 1938, p. 38], states that its inclusion was the only reason for his acceptance into the Galerie Petit exhibition [Exh. Paris 1886].

X. Y. Z. "A travers les arts: Les XX, III." La meuse 31 (March 18, 1886), p. 5, describes it as charming, well painted, well drawn, and perfectly placed on the canvas.

Auguste Renoir. Letter to Durand-Ruel. January 4, 1900 [published in Ref. Venturi 1939, vol. 1, pp. 156–57], suggests that Durand-Ruel might borrow it for a possible exhibition.

Julien Leclercq. "Petites expositions: Expositions A. Renoir." Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts no. 5 (February 3, 1900), p. 39, describes it as a Japanese interior, erroneously referring to both children as Mme Charpentier's daughters.

Charles Angrand. Letter to Paul Signac. March 1900 [published in François Lespinasse, ed., "Charles Angrand: Correspondances 1883–1926," Rouen, 1988, p. 120], mentions seeing this picture at Bernheim-Jeune's Renoir exhibition [Exh. Paris 1900].

C. L. de Moncade. "Le Peintre Renoir et le Salon d'Automne." La Liberté 10 (October 15, 1904), unpaginated [translated and published in Barbara Ehrlich White, ed., "Impressionism in Perspective," Englewood Cliffs, 1978, p. 22] , interviews Renoir, who recalls that Mme Charpentier used her influence with the members of the 1879 Salon jury to ensure its favorable placement.

Théodore Duret. Histoire des peintres impressionistes. Paris, 1906, pp. 140–42, 144, ill. p. 137 [translated and reprinted in Ref. Duret 1912], states that M. Charpentier commissioned it after Renoir had completed a portrait bust of his wife (Musée d'Orsay, Paris); credits Mme Charpentier for its inclusion in the Salon.

Durand-Ruel. Letter to Wm. Church Osborn. March 11, 1907 [MMA Archives: "Paintings-Purchased Renoir-'La Famille Charpentier' 1907–08, 1919" file], calls it "an absolute masterpiece" that is "finer than anything the Museum now possesses" and erroneously refers to it as the portrait of Mme Charpentier and her daughters.

Paul Durand-Ruel. Letters to Roger Fry. April 5 and 11, 1907 [see Distel 1985, p. 29 n. 77 and Durand-Ruel Godfroy 2014], tells Fry that Madame Charpentier had once refused one hundred thousand francs for the portrait; suggests that Fry purchase it at the Charpentier sale; informs Fry that the bid was successful.

Roger Fry. Letter to R. C. Trevelyan. April 12, 1907 [published in Ref. Sutton 1972, vol. 1, p. 284, no. 221], states that he has just returned from purchasing it in Paris.

Roger E. Fry. Letter to Edward Robinson. April 12, 1907 [MMA Archives: "Paintings-Purchased Renoir 'La Famille Charpentier' 1907–08, 1919" file], reports that Durand-Ruel bid successfully for the painting on behalf of the Museum; calls Renoir the "Gainsborough of the nineteenth century".

Georges Durand-Ruel. Letter to Paul Durand-Ruel. April 13, 1907 [Durand-Ruel archives; cited in Durand-Ruel Godfroy 2014, p. 47], reports that Renoir's wife, Aline Charigot, told him later that Madame Charpentier had paid her husband three hundred francs for the portrait in installments of fifty francs each.

Georges Durand-Ruel. Letter to Renoir. May 3, 1907 [published in Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy, ed., "Correspondance de Renoir et Durand-Ruel, 1907–1919," Lausanne, 1995, p. 13], reports that it was sold.

R[oger]. E. F[ry]. "The Charpentier Family by Renoir." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 2 (June 1907), pp. 102–4, ill., calls it "by common consent one of the finest, if not the finest work" by Renoir, noting its expression of "the animalism of childhood".

Auguste Renoir. Letter to the Metropolitan Museum. August 21, 1907 [MMA Archives], writes: "Ci joint la notice biographique que vous m'avez demandée par votre lettre de 27 juillet dernier, 21 aout 07, Renoir" (Attached is the biographical statement that you requested from me in your letter dated last July 27); sent together with a two-page biographical statement in another hand stating that the portrait was painted in the "petit salon" of the Charpentier home and misstating the date of the painting as 1877.

Léonce Bénédite. "Madame Charpentier and Her Children, by Auguste Renoir." Burlington Magazine 12 (December 1907), pp. 130–32, 135, ill. p. 128.

Frank Fowler. "The Field of Art: Modern Foreign Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum, Some Examples of the French School." Scribner's Magazine 44 (September 1908), p. 384.

James Huneker. Promenades of an Impressionist. New York, 1910, pp. 242–44, 249, states that Durand-Ruel purchased it on behalf of the MMA; erroneously calls the dog a Saint Bernard and both children girls.

Emil Waldmann. "Französische Bilder in amerikanischem Privatbesitz II." Kunst und Künstler 9 (December 1910), pp. 145–46, ill.

Julius Meier-Graefe. Auguste Renoir. Munich, 1911, pp. 58, 66–70, ill. [French ed., 1912, pp. 54, 62–64, ill.].

Théodore Duret. Manet and the French Impressionists. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1910]. London, 1912, pp. 177–78, ill. between pp. 176–77.

Harry Graf Kessler. "Deutschland und die Auslandskunst." Deutsche und französische Kunst: Eine Auseinandersetzung deutscher Künstler, Galerieleiter, Sammler und Schriftsteller. 2nd. ed. Munich, [1913], p. 122.

Charles Louis Borgmeyer. The Master Impressionists. Chicago, 1913, pp. 124–26, 148, 229, ill. p. 99.

"The Nemes Collection." American Art News 11 (May 31, 1913), p. 8, compares it to Renoir's "Henriot Family" (ca. 1875, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia).

B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "Nineteenth-Century French Painting." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 13 (August 1918), pp. 179–80, ill.

Ambroise Vollard. La Vie & l'œuvre de Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Paris, 1919, pp. 100–101 [reprinted in Vollard, "Le Salon de Mme Charpentier," L'Art et les artistes 1 (January 1920), pp. 168–69, ill. p. 163; English ed., 1925, pp. 96–97], interviews Renoir, who recalls Mme Charpentier's role in admitting it to the Salon, and states that he was paid about Fr 1,000 for it, an exceptional price for the time [see Refs. Duret 1924 and Bailey 1997].

"Renoir." Bulletin de la vie artistique 1 (December 15, 1919), p. 36, ill. p. 33, states that Renoir was paid Fr 500 for this picture [see Ref. Bailey 1997].

Félix Fénéon. "Souvenirs sur Manet." Bulletin de la vie artistique 1 (October 15, 1920), p. 610, interviews Henri Gervex, who recalls that Cabanel rehung it in a more favorable position at the Salon.

Paul Jamot. "The Acquisitions of the Louvre During the War—IV." Burlington Magazine 37 (November 1920), p. 220, refers to the portrait of Mme Charpentier in Paris as a study for it.

Georges Rivière. Renoir et ses amis. Paris, 1921, pp. 77, 177, ill. p. 180.

Paul Jamot. "Renoir (1841–1919) (premier article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 5th ser., 8 (November 1923), pp. 274–77, ill.

Paul Jamot. "Renoir (1841–1919) (deuxième et dernier article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 5th ser., 8 (December 1923), p. 336.

Théodore Duret. Renoir. Paris, 1924, pp. 54–55, 57–58, 65–66, fig. 14 [English ed., pp. 41, 43–44, 49, fig. 5 ].

Henri Gervex. Souvenirs. Ed. Jules Bertaut. Paris, [1924], pp. 17–18, recounts that when he was a member of the jury for the Salon of 1879 he witnessed Alexandre Cabanel tell a guard to move this painting from a second rung poorly lit spot to an eye-level picture-rail placement, proving Cabanel's esteem even for those with a different aesthetic from him.

Madeleine Octave Maus. Trente années de lutte pour l'art: 1884–1914. Brussels, 1926, p. 43 n. 1, pp. 312, 325.

Julius Meier-Graefe. Renoir. Leipzig, 1929, pp. 104–7, 217, ill.

George Besson. Auguste Renoir. Paris, 1929, pp. 7, 9, pl. 6.

Roger Fry. Characteristics of French Art. London, 1932, pp. 142–43, pl. XXXVII.

Albert C. Barnes and Violette De Mazia. The Art of Renoir. New York, 1935, pp. 398–99, 412, 449, no. 79.

Sam A. Lewisohn. Painters and Personality: A Collector's View of Modern Art. [New York], 1937, pl. 14.

Michel Florisoone. Renoir. Paris, 1937, pp. 24, 166, ill. p. 85 [English ed., 1938].

Claude Roger-Marx. Renoir. Paris, 1937, pp. 45–46, ill. p. 65.

Harry B. Wehle. Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1937, pp. 6–7, no. 22, ill.

Josephine L. Allen. "Paintings by Renoir." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 32 (May 1937), p. 110.

Henry McBride. "The Renoirs in America." Art News 35 (May 1, 1937), pp. 59, 158, ill. p. 68.

Michel Florisoone. "Renoir et la famille Charpentier." L'amour de l'art 19 (February 1938), pp. 31, 35–38, ill.

Lionello Venturi. Les Archives de l'impressionnisme. Paris, 1939, vol. 1, pp. 42–43, 47, 157; vol. 2, pp. 227–29, 336.

R. H. Wilenski. Modern French Painters. New York, [1940], pp. 42–43, 62, 248.

Charles Terrasse. Cinquante portraits de Renoir. Paris, 1941, unpaginated, pl. 13.

Michel Drucker. Renoir. Paris, 1944, pp. 48, 50–51, 131, 185, 196, 219, pl. 49, identifies the children as Georgette and Paul Charpentier; states that Renoir received Fr 1,000 for it; mentions three other portraits of Mme Charpentier by Renoir.

John Rewald. "Auguste Renoir and His Brother." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 27 (March 1945), p. 186, fig. 5 [reprinted in Rewald, "Studies in Impressionism," New York, 1985, p. 18, fig. 4], calls it "Mme Charpentier and Her Daughters" in the caption and "Portrait of Madame Charpentier" in the text.

John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1946, pp. 338–40, 428, ill.

Lucie and André Chamson. Renoir. Lausanne, 1949, pp. 18, 21, pl. 22.

Lionello Venturi. Impressionists and Symbolists. Vol. 2, New York, 1950, pp. 105–6, fig. 104.

Walter Pach. Pierre-Auguste Renoir. New York, 1950, pp. 18, 66–67, ill. (color).

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Miniatures, French Impressionists: Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Boudin. Vol. 27, Album 51, New York, 1951, unpaginated, ill. (color).

Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1952, p. 233, no. 148, colorpl. 148.

Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Miniatures: Figure Paintings by Renoir. Vol. 34, Album LF, New York, 1952, unpaginated, ill. (color).

Misia Sert. Misia and the Muses: The Memoirs of Misia Sert. New York, 1953, p. 85.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 83.

Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 7, ill. p. 51.

Michel Robida. Ces Bourgeois de Paris: Trois siècles de chronique familiale de 1675 à nos jours. Paris, 1955, pp. 118, 131–32, 135, ill. opp. p. 144, notes its original location at the entrance of the "galerie" on the first floor of the Charpentier home at 11, rue de Grenelle; describes Mme Charpentier in this picture as seated in her "Japanese salon" and wearing a dress designed by Worth.

A. Hyatt Mayor. "The Gifts that Made the Museum." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (November 1957), p. 86.

Michel Robida. Le Salon Charpentier et les impressionnistes. Paris, 1958, pp. 55–59, 81–82, 135, fig. XIII (detail) and ill. on front cover (color detail).

Alfred Frankfurter. "Midas on Parnassus." Art News Annual 28 (1959), p. 35, ill.

Hermann Bünemann. Renoir. Ettal, 1959, pp. 151–52, 210, 212, ill. pp. 64, 152 (color, overall and detail).

Jacques Lethève. Impressionnistes et symbolistes devant la presse. Paris, 1959, pp. 102, 106.

Michel Robida. Renoir enfants. Lausanne, 1959, pp. 9–10, 14, 30, ill. (color, detail) [English ed., 1962].

John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. rev., enl. ed. New York, 1961, pp. 419–20, 424, 430, 580, 603, ill.

Barbara Ehrlich White. "An Analysis of Renoir's Development from 1877 to 1887." PhD diss., Columbia University, 1965, pp. 48, 50–52, 94–95, 98–99, 101, 106, 176, 188, fig. 14.

Félix Fénéon. Au-delà de l'impressionnisme. Paris, 1966, p. 69.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 149–52, ill.

Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill. (color).

Introduction by Kenneth Clark. Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, p. 317, no. 380, ill.

François Duret-Robert Preface by René Huyghe in L'Impressionnisme. [Paris], 1971, p. 306 [English ed., 1973].

François Daulte. Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint. Vol. 1, Figures. Lausanne, 1971, pp. 42–43, 411, no. 266, ill. (color, overall and detail), notes that it was commissioned by Georges Charpentier in September 1878 and completed by the beginning of December of that year, following over forty sittings [see Ref. Renoir 1878]; provides the children's ages as three and six years old.

Impressionist and Modern Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture. Christie's, London. July 6, 1971, pp. 32–35, under nos. 30–33.

Denys Sutton, ed. Letters of Roger Fry. New York, 1972, vol. 1, pp. 26, 34, 97, 284, fig. 39.

Elda Fezzi. L'opera completa di Renoir. [reprint ed., 1981]. Milan, 1972, p. 103, no. 321, colorpls. XLIV–XLV, fig. 321.

Carl R. Baldwin. The Impressionist Epoch. Exh. brochure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [New York], 1974, pp. 16–17, ill.

Lydie Huyghe in René Huyghe. La Relève du réel: la peinture française au XIXe siècle: impressionnisme, symbolisme. Paris, 1974, p. 462, fig. 149.

Charles S. Moffett in Impressionism: A Centenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1974, pp. 190–94, no. 38, ill. (color, overall and detail) [French ed., "Centenaire de l'Impressionnisme," Paris], notes that the faces and hands of the sitters are more finished than the rest of the painting; sees in it Renoir's break away from Impressionism and reintroduction of "traditional pictorial values in order to satisfy the needs of a commissioned work and, more importantly, the Salon jury".

Alice Bellony-Rewald. The Lost World of the Impressionists. London, 1976, pp. 67, 69, 113, ill. (color), dates it 1877 in the text and 1878 in the caption; notes that Berthe Morisot, [Charles] Ephrussi, and the collector [Charles] Deudon all saw this painting in the Charpentier home before it was sent to the Salon [see Ref. Renoir 1878].

Frank Whitford. Japanese Prints and Western Painters. New York, 1977, p. 168.

Gabriel P. Weisberg. "Madame Henry Lerolle and Daughter Yvonne." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64 (December 1977), p. 336, fig. 19, suggests that it may have influenced Albert Besnard's "Madame Henry Lerolle and Daughter Yvonne" of about 1879–80 (Cleveland Museum of Art), noting a similar emphasis on informality.

Anthea Callen. Renoir. London, 1978, pp. 14, 17, 67, pl. 48.

Frances Spalding. Roger Fry: Art and Life. Berkeley, 1980, pp. 100–101, pl. 34.

William Gaunt. Renoir. 3rd rev. ed. [1st ed., 1952]. Oxford, 1982, pp. 16–17, under no. 31, fig. 27.

Barbara Ehrlich White. Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters. New York, 1984, pp. 84, 87–89, 121, 162–163, 165, 192, 210, 237, ill. (color), notes that there were forty sittings for it between September through mid-October 1878; suggests the influence of Ingres's portrait of Mme Philibert Rivière of about 1805 (Musée du Louvre, Paris); comments that Renoir made the figures more solid and tangible in response to criticism of his painting, but that he retained Impressionist methods of arrangement, color, and spontaneity.

John Pope-Hennessy. "Roger Fry and The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Oxford, China, and Italy: Writings in Honour of Sir Harold Acton on his Eightieth Birthday. Ed. Edward Chaney and Neil Ritchie. London, 1984, p. 234.

Anne Distel in Renoir. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery. [London], 1985, pp. 20, 25, 29 n. 77, pp. 197, 212, under no. 40, pp. 214–15, 298–99, 310, no. 44, ill. pp. 84–85 (color, overall and detail), 214 [French ed., pp. 31, 40–41 n. 77, 101, 148, 156–59, 376–77, 394, ill. (color, overall and detail)].

John House in Renoir. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery. [London], 1985, pp. 221, 244, under no. 74 [French ed., pp. 177, 238].

Denis Rouart. Renoir. revised ed. (1st ed., 1954). New York, 1985, pp. 46–47, 150, ill. (color).

Eunice Lipton. Looking into Degas: Uneasy Images of Women and Modern Life. Berkeley, 1986, pp. 54, 211 n. 6, fig. 31.

Melissa McQuillan. Impressionist Portraits. London, 1986, pp. 26, 136–37, ill. (overall and detail, color and black and white).

Marcel Proust. A la recherche du temps perdu. Ed. Jean-Yves Tadié et al. Vol. 4, new ed. [Paris], 1989, pp. 299–300, 1198 n. 2, Tadié et al. identify The Met's picture as the one to which Proust compares the most beautiful paintings by Titian and as the source for his description of Mme Charpentier's salon and high fashion, which Proust notes form a more indicative portrait of his time than the portraits of Pierre-Auguste Cot and Charles Chaplin.

Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture, Part I. Sotheby's, London. November 28, 1989, p. 24, under no. 9.

Anne Distel. Impressionism: The First Collectors. New York, 1990, pp. 8, 38, 141, 144, 147, 162, colorpl. 126.

Milton Esterow. "Masterpiece Theater." Art News 89 (Summer 1990), pp. 135–36, ill.

Margaret Fitzgerald Farr. "Impressionist Portraiture: A Study in Context and Meaning." PhD diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1992, pp. 156, 185 n. 49, p. 190 n. 62, pp. 193–96, pl. 26.

John House. Renoir, Master Impressionist. Exh. cat., Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. Sydney, 1994, pp. 33–34, fig. 10 (color).

Marie Simon. Fashion in Art: The Second Empire and Impressionism. London, 1995, pp. 142, 147, ill. pp. 144–45 (color).

Albert Kostenevich. Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Exh. cat.New York, 1995, pp. 89, 92.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 480, ill. p. 481.

Colin B. Bailey. "Renoir's Portrait of His Sister-in-Law." Burlington Magazine 137 (October 1995), p. 685.

Götz Adriani. Renoir. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Tübingen. Cologne, 1996, pp. 38–39, 52, 224, ill.

Thierry Laget. "Proust, peintre d'Elstir: Un catalogue irraisonné." 48/14: La revue du Musée d’Orsay no. 2 (February 1996), p. 71, identifies it as the model for a portrait of the fictional Duke of Guermantes by the fictional artist Elstir described in the third volume of Marcel Proust’s novel “À la recherche du temps perdu” (1913–1927); makes this connection using Proust’s early drafts, in which he better described the portrait’s elegant interior.

Colin B. Bailey in Colin B. Bailey. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. New Haven, 1997, pp. 4, 6, 8–9, 14–17, 48 n. 158, pp. 158, 160–67, 189, 202, 296–300, 312 n. 64, p. 319 n. 11, no. 32, ill. (color, overall and details) and on back cover, dates it mid-September to mid-October 1878; considers Duret [see Ref. 1937] a more reliable source for the amount Renoir was paid, noting that it was below the market price; notes that Renoir supervised its varnishing and unvarnishing and possibly chose its frame; remarks that there are no known preparatory sketches; identifies three sections of a Japanese screen, possibly of the Rimpa school, in the background, and states that the setting is Mme Charpentier's bedroom.

Linda Nochlin in Colin B. Bailey. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. New Haven, 1997, p. 69.

Anne Distel in Colin B. Bailey. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. New Haven, 1997, p. 78.

Rebecca A. Rabinow. "Catharine Lorillard Wolfe: The First Woman Benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum." Apollo 147 (March 1998), p. 54.

John House in Sona Johnston. Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections. Exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art. New York, 1999, p. 12, fig. 2 (color).

Philip Nord. Impressionists and Politics: Art and Democracy in the Nineteenth Century. London, 2000, pp. 56, 62, pl. 2.5, discusses it in the context of the shift in subjects deemed suitable for portraits with the rise of Impressionism from royalty to the middle class.

Rebecca A. Rabinow. "Modern Art Comes to the Metropolitan: The 1921 Exhibition of 'Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings'." Apollo 152 (October 2000), pp. 4, 9 n. 13.

Hugues Wilhelm in Berthe Morisot, 1841–1895. Ed. Sylvie Patry, Hugues Wilhelm, and Sylvie Patin. Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille. Paris, 2002, pp. 294–95, under no. 86, fig. 3 (color).

Anne E. Dawson. Idol of the Moderns: Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American Painting. Exh. cat., San Diego Museum of Art. San Diego, 2002, pp. 17, 23–24, 26, 32, 41, 47, 54, 57, ill., comments that Roger Fry's acquisition of the picture for the MMA enhanced Renoir's reputation in America, and may have influenced Durand-Ruel's decision to organize the artist's first solo exhibition in this country the following year.

James H[enry]. Rubin. Impressionist Cats & Dogs: Pets in the Painting of Modern Life. New Haven, 2003, pp. 1, 67, 88, 90–94, figs. 2, 70 (color, overall and detail).

Impressionist & Modern Art, Part One. Sotheby's, New York. November 5, 2003, p. 20, under no. 4, fig. 1 (color).

Barbara Dayer Gallati. Children of the Gilded Era: Portraits by Sargent, Renoir, Cassatt, and their Contemporaries. London, 2004, pp. 76–78, ill. (color).

Akiko Fukai in Fashion in Colors. Exh. cat., Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum. New York, 2004, p. 18, ill. p. 16, discusses Mme Charpentier's black dress as "the color of the moment, associated with dignity, mystery, and elegance".

Ann Dumas in Ann Dumas and John Collins. Renoir's Women. Exh. cat., Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio. London, 2005, pp. 40, 114, 116, 119, fig. 25 (color).

Richard Rand in The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2006, p. 253.

Sidsel Maria Søndergaard in Women in Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman. Ed. Sidsel Maria Søndergaard. Exh. cat., Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Milan, 2006, p. 58, fig. 63 (color).

Guy-Patrice Dauberville, and Michel Dauberville, with Camille Fremontier-Murphy. Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles. Vol. 1, 1858–1881. Paris, 2007, pp. 281–82, 480, no. 239, ill.

John Collins in Inspiring Impressionism: The Impressionists and the Art of the Past. Ed. Ann Dumas. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art, Atlanta. Denver, 2007, pp. 233–34, 239, 241 n. 64, fig. 108 (color).

Gary Tinterow in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, p. 7, fig. 13 (installation photo).

Lin Arison in Lin Arison and Neil Folberg. Travels with Van Gogh and the Impressionists: Discovering the Connections. New York, 2007, p. 84, ill. pp. 83, 261 (color).

Rebecca A. Rabinow in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 153, 297–98, no. 142, ill. (color and black and white).

Helen Burnham. "Fashion and the Representation of Modernity: Studies in the Late Work of Edouard Manet (1832–1883)." PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2007, p. 141 n. 250.

Hugues Wilhelm. Berthe Morisot: A Retrospective. Exh. cat., Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art. Tokyo, 2007, p. 98.

Christine I. Oaklander. "Jonathan Sturges, W. H. Osborn, and William Church Osborn: A Chapter in American Art Patronage." Metropolitan Museum Journal 43 (2008), p. 191.

Albert Kostenevich. Renoir: Compositions with Stairs. St. Petersburg, 2009, pp. 31–32, ill.

Augustin de Butler, ed. Écrits et propos sur l'art.. By Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Paris, 2009, pp. 21, 24, 30 n. 6, 59, 273–74, notes that its success at the Salon brought Renoir more patrons but that they left him after 1882 with his new style.

Laurence Madeline in Renoir in the 20th Century. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Ostfildern, 2010, p. 130, fig. 57 (color) [French ed., "Renoir au XXe siècle," Paris, 2009], notes its influence on Picasso's "Portrait of Madame Rosenberg and Her Daughter" of 1918 (Musée National Picasso, Paris).

R[ichard]. S[hone]. "Supplement: Acquisitions (2000–10) of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York." Burlington Magazine 152 (December 2010), p. 839.

Anne Distel. Renoir. New York, 2010, pp. 159–66, 233, 239–40, 321, 380–83, 387 n. 16, colorpl. 145, discusses the painting at length; notes that there was a similar table in Renoir's last residence at Les Collettes; compares the dog Porthos to the one in "The Inn of Mother Anthony" (1866, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm) and the picture to "Children's Afternoon at Wargemont" (1884, Nationalgalerie, Berlin); states that Paul Durand-Ruel persuaded Roger Fry to buy the picture for The Met.

Eberhard Illner in Alfred Sisley. Ed. Gerhard Finckh. Exh. cat., Von der Heydt-Museum. Wuppertal, 2011, p. 53.

John House in Renoir in the Barnes Foundation. New Haven, 2012, p. 7, fig. 10 (color).

Gloria Groom in Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity. Ed. Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Chicago, 2012, pp. 39, 306 n. 46 [French ed., "L'Impressionnisme et la Mode," Paris, pp. 79, 80 n. 45].

Justine De Young in Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity. Ed. Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Chicago, 2012, pp. 239–40 [French ed., "L'Impressionnisme et la Mode," Paris, pp. 261–62].

Sylvie Patry in Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity. Ed. Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Chicago, 2012, pp. 244–51, 320–22 nn. 1–52, ill. pp. 245–46 (color, overall and detail), fig. 3 (color detail) [French ed., "L'Impressionnisme et la Mode," Paris, pp. 99–105, ill. p. 98 (color)], discusses at length both the general fashionability of the portrait and of Charpentier's and the children's dresses more specifically; notes that the Newfoundland dog Porthos was a gift from Clotilde Schultz, one among Charpentier's stable of writers; states that the Charpentier publishing house was at its peak when Renoir painted the portrait; notes that the painting was enlarged before it entered the Museum in 1907 and that the composition evokes portraits of mothers and children by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Gainsborough; states that the setting is the family's little Japanese living room, citing Renoir 1907; cites a letter from Geneviève Lacambre to the author (May 23, 2012) to identify the Japanese screens as painted screens rather than dismantled panels of a Rimpa screen, the bamboo furniture set as similar to those in an 1876 catalogue from the department store Au Printemps, and a comparable table at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon (Trimolet Bequest, 1878); states that Renoir later tired of the work; notes that the price at which it sold to the Museum was unprecedented, citing Fry 1907.

Françoise Tétart-Vittu in Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity. Ed. Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Chicago, 2012, p. 65 [French ed., "L'Impressionnisme et la Mode," Paris, p. 109].

Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity. Ed. Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Chicago, 2012, p. 292, no. 124, ill. (color) [French ed., "L'Impressionnisme et la Mode," Paris, p. 301, no. 46].

Pierre Pinchon in Berthe Morisot 1841–1895. Exh. cat., Musée Marmottan Monet. Paris, 2012, p. 152 [English ed., 2012].

Lukas Gloor in Cézanne and the Past: Tradition and Creativity. Exh. cat., Szépmüvészeti Múzeum. Budapest, 2012, p. 515 n. 23.

Leah Lehmbeck in Manet: Portraying Life. Exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art. London, 2012, p. 55.

John House in Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Ed. Sarah Lees. Williamstown, Mass., 2012, vol. 2, p. 660, under no. 275; p. 662, under no. 276.

Stefanie Manthey in Renoir, Between Bohemia and Bourgeoisie: The Early Years. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Ostfildern, 2012, p. 288, fig. 87 (color).

Sylvie Patry in Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Revoir Renoir. Ed. Daniel Marchesseau. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2014, pp. 19–20, ill. (color).

Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy in Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Revoir Renoir. Ed. Daniel Marchesseau. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2014, p. 47.

Daniel Marchesseau in Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Revoir Renoir. Ed. Daniel Marchesseau. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2014, pp. 128, 132, 134, 311, 317.

Renoir Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw. Chicago, 2014, para. 7, n. 17, under nos. 12–13, fig. 2 (color) [https://publications.artic.edu/renoir/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/138973].

John Collins in Renoir Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw. Chicago, 2014, para. 5, under no. 4; para. 11, under no. 7, fig. 7.11 (color); para. 3, under no. 8; para. 4, under no. 9; paras. 3, 6, under no. 11, fig. 11.6 (color) [https://publications.artic.edu/renoir/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/138973], contrasts its virtuoso representation of black silk to the expressive color in “Young Woman Sewing” (1879, Art Institute of Chicago); contrasts its representation of familial intimacy to the detachment of “Two Sisters (On the Terrace)” (1881, Art Institute of Chicago).

Nancy Ireson in Renoir Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw. Chicago, 2014, para. 5, under no. 5, fig. 5.2 (color) [https://publications.artic.edu/renoir/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/138973], notes it was painted in the same year that Renoir made illustrations for the deluxe edition of Émile Zola’s “L’assommoir”, which had been first published in full by Georges Charpentier in 1877.

Janet Whitmore. "Review of 'Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity'." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 13 (Spring 2014), fig. 7 (color) [http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/spring14/whitmore-reviews-impressionism-fashion-and-modernity], discusses its display at the Chicago venue in the gallery entitled “Intimate Portraits”.

Andrea Bayer. "Collecting North Italian Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." A Market for Merchant Princes: Collecting Italian Renaissance Paintings in America. Ed. Inge Reist. University Park, Pa., 2015, p. 84.

Anne Distel in Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market. Ed. Sylvie Patry. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg, Paris. London, 2015, p. 133 [French ed., 'Paul Durand-Ruel: le Pari de l'Impressionnisme," Paris, 2014, p. 105].

Anne Distel in Victor Chocquet, Freund und Sammler der Impressionisten: Renoir, Cézanne, Monet, Manet. Ed. Mariantonia Reinhard-Felice. Exh. cat., Sammlung Oskar Reinhart "Am Römerholz," Winterthur. Munich, 2015, pp. 35, 130, compares it to Renoir's "Madame Victor Chocquet" (1875, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart).

Augustin de Butler. "Renoir, Matisse and the Colour Black." Burlington Magazine 158 (June 2016), pp. 440, fig. 32 (color), states that the painting could be seen as a defense of the color black.

Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 443, no. 379, ill. pp. 384–85, 443 (color).

Guillermo Solana. Renoir: Intimacy. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2016, pp. 29, 31, 40, fig. 6 (color) [Spanish ed., "Renoir: Intimidad," pp. 29, 31, 40, fig. 6 (color)].

Colin B. Bailey in Renoir: Intimacy. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2016, pp. 52, 60 [Spanish ed., "Renoir: Intimidad," pp. 52, 60].

Paula Luengo in Renoir: Intimacy. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2016, pp. 185–86 [Spanish ed., "Renoir: Intimidad," pp. 185–86].

Ségolène Le Men and Sylvain Amic in Scènes de la vie impressionniste: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Morisot . . . Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen. Paris, 2016, p. 37.

Judith Cernogora in Scènes de la vie impressionniste: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Morisot . . . Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen. Paris, 2016, p. 114.

Frédéric Bigo in Scènes de la vie impressionniste: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Morisot . . . Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen. Paris, 2016, p. 168.

Florence Hudowicz in Scènes de la vie impressionniste: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Morisot . . . Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen. Paris, 2016, p. 196.

Jane R. Becker in Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900. Exh. cat., Denver Art Museum. New Haven, 2017, p. 60, calls it a painting carefully designed for Salon acceptance and notes that Félix Bracquemond praised it.

Dominique Lobstein in Monet the Collector. Exh. cat., Musée Marmottan Monet. Paris, 2017, p. 126 n. 21.

Monika Leonhardt in Praised and Ridiculed: French Painting 1820–1880. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. Munich, 2017, p. 219.

Kathleen Adler in Alfred Sisley: Impressionist Master. Exh. cat., Bruce Museum. Greenwich, Conn., 2017, p. 124.

Impressionist and Modern Art Works on Paper and Day Sales. Christie's, New York. May 14, 2019, unpaginated, fig. 1 (color), under no. 341.

Caroline Elam. Roger Fry and Italian Art. London, 2019, p. 46.

Scott Allan in Manet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years. Ed. Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Los Angeles, 2019, pp. 26, 40 n. 87.

Esther Bell in Renoir: The Body, the Senses. Ed. Esther Bell and George T. M. Shackelford. Exh. cat., Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2019, p. 63.

Katharine Baetjer and Joan R. Mertens. "The Founding Decades." Making The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer with Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, pp. 43, 258 n. 23.

Theodore Reff, ed. The Letters of Edgar Degas.. By Edgar Degas. New York, 2020, vol. 2, p. 68 n. 1 (under letter no. 483).

Katharine Baetjer in European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. South Brisbane, 2021, p. 203, ill. (color).

Kevin Sharp in Dixon Gallery and Gardens: Paintings, Sculpture, Works on Paper. Memphis, 2021, p. 55, fig. 10 (color), states that Georges Charpentier insisted that the portrait debut at the Salon rather than with the Impressionists.

Catherine Méneux in "Relative Independence: The Determining Role of Collectors at the Fourth 'Impressionist' Exhibition in 1879." Collecting Impressionism: A Reappraisal of the Role of Collectors in the History of the Movement. Ed. Ségolène Le Men and Félicie Faizand de Maupeou. Milan, 2022, pp. 143–44, 150 n. 34.

Gloria Groom in Cezanne. Ed. Achim Borchardt-Hume et al. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 2022, p. 25.

This work may not be lent.