Known for his impressionistic depictions of ballet dancers, Pierre Carrier-Belleuse also produced exceptional works documenting modern life in Paris. The son of the sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887), Pierrefirst studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts under Alexandre Cabanel (1824-1881) and Pierre Victor Galland (1822-1892). Beginning in 1875, Carrier-Belleuse frequently exhibited at the Paris Salon, where he received an honorable mention in 1887. Two years later, he was awarded a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle.
Belle Époque Paris was a city full of pleasures. A celebrated pocket guide to the city’s newest and newsworthy haunts, aptly titled Les plaisirs de Paris (written by the journalist Alfred Delvau and first published 1867), an advertisement for which is visible at the center of the painting, promised readers entrée into la ville du plaisir et des plaisirs par excellence. This desire to see and be seen lies at the heart of Carrier-Belleuse’s clever mise-en-scène, which plays on the conceit of the gaze. Set in a box at a café-concert, the tightly packed composition and compact format recall similar scenes of spectators at the opera, most especially Mary Cassatt’s In the Loge (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), also painted in 1878.
The present works focuses not the theatrical performance, but on the spectators and the tactic relationships among them: the forlorn woman at left sits seemingly unaware of the man who looks up at her from below, while the finely dressed couple at right appear fully engrossed in their own private conversation. This intermingling of people from different social classes was a new, exciting, and sometimes disquieting hallmark of the modern city. It is exactly this kind of lingering and leering at the theater–at once off-putting and intoxicating–that is described in Conty’s guide:
For him, to go and pile up each evening, by hundreds of couples, in nauseating rooms, where the smell of human breath mingles—horrible mixture!—with the smell of flowers, is supreme happiness.
The mélange of people from varied economic echelons appears at the heart of the painting, which is a study in social contrasts. The couple at right represents all that is appropriate: the woman’s wedding ring, visible on her ungloved left hand resting on the banister beneath her well-behaved pup, indicates their marital status and the glasses she wears underscores her attentiveness to the performance. By contrast, the young woman’s tightly bundled fresh flowers and the reminder that her seat is purchased–a sign reading en location 20 fr (for rent 20 francs) to her left reveals the price and another marked louée (rented), prominently hangs beneath her–suggests that in addition to the vacant seat, her affections may also be for sale or, perhaps, have have already been bought by the man (perhaps the figure leering at her from below) who gave her the bouquet.
The sign reads en location 20 fr, disclosing the price of the seat
The sign 'ouée indicates that the box is rented
A popular guide book, Les plaisirs de Paris, written by the journalist Alfred Delvau and first published 1867, is advertised on the back wall
The woman’s wedding ring suggests her marital status and the appropriate nature of her conversation with the man at right, presumed to be her husband
Paris de poche, another pocket guide book, is also advertised
