A version of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's La Loge (1874) is going on auction at Sotheby's next Tuesday. A larger likeness of Nini and Edmond in a Paris Opera box exists at the at the Courtauld Gallery in London. Interestingly, a special exhibit there entitled "Renoir at the Theatre: Looking at La Loge" begins February 21 and runs until May 25, and they are hoping whomever purchases the small painting will lend it.
I have no memory of this picture at all, though I was at the Courtauld in 1999. The gallery is pleasingly tiny, but it is quite likely I did not even go into the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism rooms. What I remember best is the very fierce looking Fra Angelico Magdalene, flanking an Imago Pietatis.
Should you decide to go, do note that there is a £5 admission fee for adults, but that this covers the special exhibit.
