Pierre-Auguste Renoir – La Loge (The Theatre Box)

La Loge – two opera glasses, each turned a different way

La Loge (The Theatre Box) is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1874. The original measures 80.0 x 63.5 cm, is recorded under inventory number P.1948.SC.338 and belongs to the collection of The Courtauld in London. Our art reproduction La Loge is a hand-painted painting in oil on canvas, in eight sizes from 65 x 80 to 140 x 170 cm.

Who is looking at whom in the box

Renoir showed the canvas at the first Impressionist group exhibition in Paris in 1874. The woman in the black-and-white striped gown has already lowered her opera glasses and has become the centre of attention; the man behind her has raised his to look at someone else in the audience. The two figures were posed by the model Nini Lopez and the painter’s brother, Edmond. Renoir set out to make a symphony in black and white, which is why the stripes of the dress are laid in so decisively.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. In this subject the difference is easy to see: the stripes, the pearls and the lace are built from individual strokes of oil colour, laid side by side with a brush. The paint keeps the thickness of the load and the track of the bristles, which printed paper cannot imitate, so an oil painting on canvas reads differently under changing light than a flat printed surface does.

In the room

The colour range is dark and elegant, without a single loud note, and that is exactly why the painting holds the eye even in a room where a good deal already stands: above a chest of drawers, in a dining room, or where dark wood dominates. The upright format suits it because the scene is built in height – the woman in front, the man behind her – and a wall taller than it is wide repeats that proportion. For a smaller wall 80 x 100 cm is enough, above a larger piece of furniture we suggest 100 x 120 cm, and on a large wall 130 x 160 cm works. The smallest size, 65 x 80 cm, matches the original and belongs on a narrow wall, where the painting is seen from close to.

What you receive

We paint the canvas to order, by hand and for you alone, so every copy is made on its own; the canvas is usually painted and dried within three to four weeks. If you prefer, we will paint it in a size that is not on the list. Before despatch we send you a photograph of the finished canvas for your approval, and only then does the painting go out. La Loge (The Theatre Box) arrives stretched on a wooden frame and ready to hang, wrapped in protective film and in rigid packaging, with no further stretching or finishing needed.

• Subject: a woman and a man in a theatre box, in a black-and-white striped dress, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 65 x 80 cm to 140 x 170 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the canvas hung in the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris

See also:

• The Large Bathers
• Flowers in a Vase
• Promenade Undergrowth