The Cup of Chocolate

In the spring of 1878 the Impressionists held their fourth group show, and Renoir chose not to be in it. He was tired of poverty and bad reviews, and he wanted the buyers who trusted the official Salon, so he sent this canvas there instead. It shows a young woman in an expensive interior, lifting a cup of chocolate in gloved hands. The setting is bourgeois, but the model was not. She was Margot Legrand, a seamstress and one of Renoir's favourites, dressed and posed as a lady of means. The Salon accepted the picture and barely noticed it. Margot did not have long either. She died of smallpox the next year, at 23.