La Première Sortie

The Paris opera had just moved into its grand new home, the Palais Garnier, which opened in 1875, only a year or so before Renoir painted this. Its great staircase and tiers of balconies were built as much for watching other people as for watching the stage. That is the real subject here. A young woman in black leans forward in a box, a small bunch of flowers in her hand, gazing down while the crowd below dissolves into loose, bright dabs of paint, the way a lit theatre looks when your eyes are fixed somewhere else. Renoir never called it La Première Sortie, the first night out. A London saleroom gave it that title in 1923, nearly fifty years later, guessing at the girl's excitement to help the picture sell.