Renoir’s brother Edmond and Nini Lopez, a model known as fish-face, posed for this painting of a box at the theatre. He uses his opera glasses to scan the audience; she holds hers in her hand, her gaze slightly unfocused as if she knows she is being looked at.

‘La Loge’ was included in the Impressionists’ first group exhibition in 1874. Critics were divided. One used the woman as a warning of the dangerous temptations of the fashion industry; another praised her elegance.