The Cup of Chocolate

The Cup of Chocolate is an oil on canvas painting by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), featuring a model known as Margot. The painting, dated between 1877 and 1878, depicts a portrait of a young French bourgeois woman drinking either coffee or chocolate in a setting of luxury. Formerly held by private collectors, the painting was acquired by the Louvre Abu Dhabi in 2022.

Background
Like the rest of the Impressionists at this time, Renoir was not having much success with his exhibitions. He decided to change directions and declined to submit any works to the Impressionist exhibition in March 1878, choosing to submit The Cup of Chocolate to the Salon that same year instead. This choice gave Renoir the opportunity to pursue new clientele, leading to new portrait commissions. Renoir told art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel (1831–1922), "There are in Paris scarcely fifteen art-lovers capable of liking a painting without Salon approval. There are 80,000 who won't buy an inch of canvas if the painter is not in the Salon...My submitting to the Salon is entirely a business matter."

Italian art critic Diego Martelli declared that Renoir had "deserted" the Impressionists and was encouraged by French salonist and art collector Marguerite Charpentier to go back to the Salon of 1878. Renoir submitted the painting to the Salon under the title Le café. It was accepted, but received little critical notice at the time.

Margot replaced Lise Tréhot as Renoir's favorite model, but she died tragically at the age of 23 in 1879 from smallpox. After a period of grieving which prevented him doing any work, Renoir would find success just months later at the Salon of 1879 with Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children. After Margot's death, Aline Charigot began sitting for Renoir, becoming his wife just several years later.

Related works
Two additional works from 1912 and 1914 with the title Cup of Chocolate are held by the Barnes Foundation.