Young Girl in a Blue Corset 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir sketched this pastel drawing of a young girl in France. Renoir’s Impressionist works often focused on scenes of leisure and modern life, yet this work also exposes the economic realities of 19th-century Parisian society. The blue corset suggests the sitter is a working-class woman, perhaps a shop girl or a dancer, who would have worn a corset as part of her daily attire, to signal the respectability of her class. The pastel medium lends itself to a quick, informal sketch, rather than a formal portrait, but the subtle blush on her cheeks and her elegant posture suggest a certain level of refinement. Historians can use archival materials such as fashion magazines, photographs, and social surveys to gain a deeper understanding of the complex social dynamics that shaped Renoir’s work, and his commentary on the status of women in 19th-century France.