Cup of Chocolate (La Tasse de chocolat)

Cup of Chocolate (La Tasse de chocolat), 1914, is a second chocolate cup subject in the Barnes Foundation collection (distinct from the 1912 Femme prenant du chocolat), reflecting Renoir's return to domestic drinking subjects in his late Cagnes years. The intimate scale of such subjects made them manageable for an artist working under severe physical limitation while still allowing him to explore the interplay of human figure and warm domestic object. Hot chocolate, with its warm brown-amber colour, harmonised naturally with his warm overall palette.

The warm brown of the chocolate and the cream or white of the cup provide a concentrated colour chord at the centre of the composition. Renoir's rendering of steam or the cup's warmth—suggested through subtle blurring of adjacent tones—creates atmosphere without departing from observed reality.