For a painter of the Impressionist circle, a good portrait commission could mean the difference between making a living and not. Pierre-Auguste Renoir found his in Marguerite Charpentier, whose husband Georges was a leading Paris publisher of Zola, Flaubert and Daudet. Her salon brought writers, politicians and artists together, and Renoir became a regular guest.
The portrait he painted in 1878 shows her in her own home, in a Japanese-style room, with her son Paul and her daughter Georgette. Georgette sits on the family dog, a casual detail that makes the formal, expensive setting more human. The gowns, the furniture and the screen behind are painted with the loose, bright touch that was Renoir's trademark.
It also had a plan behind it. Renoir sent it to the official Paris Salon of 1879 instead of the Impressionist exhibition, and Madame Charpentier's connections helped make sure it was hung where visitors would see it. It was a success, and orders followed.
The painting was bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1907, and it remains one of the best-known family portraits of the nineteenth century.
Renoir's Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children appears on our:
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