La Parisienne

Renoir presents his pert subject dressed from head to foot in an outdoor morning toilette of striking blue silk, with matching toque and choker, appropriate for the spring. This Parisienne's walking dress consists of a jacket worn over a double-layer skirt, with the overskirt pulled into a bustle in the back and the underskirt trimmed at the front with two pleated flounces. Initially, Renoir may have intended to present his model in a more defined setting, since he appears to have laid in background elements such as a doorway or column at left. Although this is not a portrait, we know that Renoir used the services of his favorite model at the time, Marie-Henriette Grossin, a seventeen-year-old actress who would later assume the stage name Madame Henriot. She posed for two other pictures in this exhibition: Madame Henriot "en travesti'' (The Page) and La Promenade.