Lady in Blue

In April 1874 a group of younger painters, among them Monet, Degas and Renoir, opened an exhibition of their own in the photographer Nadar's former studio in Paris. Corot was 78 that year and one of the most admired landscape painters in France, and he set this figure in his own workroom. An easel leans at the side and pictures hang on the wall behind her. The model wears the fashion of the moment, a blue gown gathered up at the back over a bustle, and holds a small fan against her skirt. She leans on a piece of furniture draped in red, her chin resting on her fingers. Corot never showed the picture, and he died the following February. It caused a stir at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900, and the Louvre bought it in 1912.