Image: public domain, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children

Auguste Renoir, 1878

Madame Charpentier, the wife of a Paris publisher, sits with her two children in their Japanese-style sitting room. Her three-year-old son Paul is dressed just like his sister, as was the fashion then, while Georgette sits on the family dog.

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Did you know?

The big dog is a Newfoundland, and its black-and-white fur echoes the colours of Madame's dress.
Renoir needed about a month and many sittings in the autumn of 1878 to finish it.
Monsieur Charpentier was the publisher of Émile Zola's novels.
Writers like Flaubert and Zola came to Madame's salons, and she won the painting a good spot at the 1879 Salon.
Marcel Proust saw this painting on visits to the family and later mentioned it in his great novel.
The Met bought it in 1907 for 84,000 francs, with the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel acting for the museum.

About the artist

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) was born in Limoges, worked mostly in Paris, and spent his last years in the sunny south of France at Cagnes-sur-Mer.

A leading Impressionist, he is loved for joyful scenes of people enjoying themselves together, such as Dance at the Moulin de la Galette and Luncheon of the Boating Party.

At thirteen he started out painting flowers on porcelain, and all his life he believed a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful and pretty.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir ›

Where it is today: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · Museum page