Caillebotte Cassatt Degas Manet Monet Morisot Pissarro Renoir

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This is a portrait of Mary Cassatt's sister Lydia, who is sitting in a box at the opera, called a loge. The mirror behind her reflects other audience members looking down towards the stage from their opera boxes. Well-to-do Parisians usually went to the theater once or twice a week, attending plays, ballets, concerts and the opera.

See and be seen at the theater
The opera was an important place to "see and be seen." Opera glasses (small binoculars) were used to watch performers on stage, and also to take discreet peeks at people in the audience. Ladies' fans served two purposes: to cool off in a warm theater, and to hide behind.

Fashion rules
This is an evening performance; we can tell by the dress Lydia is wearing. Women wore dark dresses with high necklines to matinees and gowns like this in the evening. What people of the upper class wore for different social occasions was strictly dictated. Ladies and gentlemen carefully obeyed the fashion rules of their day.

How to paint light
"Clean" bright colors used next to darker, mixed ones ("dirtier colors") create the three-dimensional effects of highlight and shadow. Cassatt used pale yellow for light falling on Lydia's hair, and a bright, clean red (a red without other colors mixed in) to create the effect of light falling on the red velour seat back. And to make Lydia's pearls glimmer, Cassatt used touches of bright white paint.