La Parisienne

In the spring of 1874 a group of painters who could not get into the official Salon rented the photographer Nadar's studio in Paris and hung their own show. The critics coined the word Impressionist to mock them. Renoir sent seven works, and this was one, a young woman in a long dress of deep, layered blue, pulling on her gloves as if about to step out into the city. The model was Henriette Henriot, an actress of about 16. Renoir called the picture simply La Parisienne, the Parisian woman, and the blue does almost all the work, catching the light in dozens of shifting tones. He had first painted a doorway and a curtain behind her, then scrubbed them out, leaving her floating against nothing. One reviewer at the show flatly called it a failure.