Dance in the City

A young couple waltz alone on an immaculate parquet floor in a marble salon, with palms and indoor plants behind them. The woman, her hair in a chignon adorned with a single pink rose, is wearing a "toilette de bal" of white satin or silk taffeta, with organza, lace, or chiffon trimming around the neck and shoulders of the bodice. Her neck and back are most likely powdered, and she wears elbow-length white gloves of satin or leather, an essential accouterment for her sleeveless ball gown. Here Renoir used two of his friends as models. The demure, well-bred young woman was posed for by the eighteen-year-old artist and habituée of Montmartre, Suzanne Valadon. Her partner was modeled for by the twenty-three-year-old journalist Paul Lhote, a man about town whose handsome features Renoir faithfully recorded.

Related: Dance in the Country and Dance at Bougival