François Daulte (op. cit.) does not identify the sitter for this painting. In 1874 Renoir began working with three new female models. Henriette Henriot, an actress at the Odéon Theatre in Paris, inspired the painting La lecture du rôle, 1874 (Daulte, no. 113) and was the model for La Parisienne, 1874 (Daulte, no. 102). Renoir also engaged Nini, a Montmartre model who was known as "Gueule de Raie" ("Fish Mouth"). She posed for La loge, 1875 (Daulte, no. 116). A second Nini, Nini Lopez, a blond, features in La Pensée, 1877 (Daulte, no. 227) and other paintings of this period. In 1875 a fourth model made her appearance; Margot (Marguerite) Legrand became his favorite sitter for the next four years. Her illness and death in 1879 moved Renoir very deeply and it has been suggested they were romantically involved.

In addition to these women, Renoir also engaged milliners, seamstresses and laundresses to pose for him. Indeed, the beauty of the women who frequented Renoir's studio attracted artists, writers and musicians, whom the artist put to use as models as well. "Sometimes he so idealized his models that it is difficult to be sure who was posing. Yet the fact that these were his friends and not strangers enabled him to capture the intimacy in their relationships." (B. E. White, Renoir, His Life, Art, and Letters, New York, 1984, pp. 50 and 51).