Parisiennes in Algerian Costume or Harem

At the center, a blond woman in a sheer garment sits with one knee raised; at the left, a woman with bare skin turns her back and holds a necklace. A woman with long black hair waits at the right, and another leans forward in the background. A finely patterned carpet spreads across the floor, strewn with small items such as bracelets and feather ornaments.

As the title says, the models are Parisian women dressed in the Algerian manner. Renoir had not yet visited North Africa at the time; drawing on works such as Eugene Delacroix's Women of Algiers, he created an Eastern atmosphere through carpets, furniture and showy costumes. The colors and brushwork, which melt softly into one another on skin and fabric, already show the rich color of the later Renoir.

The painting passed through the hands of the Paris dealers Bernheim-Jeune and Durand-Ruel before joining Matsukata Kojiro's collection at the end of 1921. The French government seized it in 1944, and it was returned to Japan in 1959, becoming part of the National Museum of Western Art's collection.