Albert Edelfelt arrived in Paris as early as 1874. He found it easy to make friends and mixed with several of the greatest names of the day. Edelfelt was a skilful history painter but in Paris he liked to paint elegant scenes from bourgeois life like this one. Even though this is an interior, the light plays an important role and the artist has made a close study of how it falls in the room. Note the envelope in the woman’s hand, which the light pervades so that it becomes transparent.