sewing at the table, but her corset is carelessly cast on the floor; the man stands with his back to the door, but a top hat appears in the far left background; they seem to be a couple, but there is only a single bed. Degas would have known well the conventions by which such genre paintings were habitually read—the illegi- bility of Interior can only have been deliberate.43 Where should La Promenade be placed in relation to these paintings and these debates? In comparison with Manet's and Degas's paintings, the poses and gestures in Renoir's canvas are expressive and legible and the inter- change between the figures is intelligible. Overall it is closer to conventional, fashionable genre painting. However, in three respects La Promenade marks itself out as quite different from the Stevens mode and asserts its allegiance to the examples of Gourbet and Manet: in the setting in which the figures are placed, in the presence of a male figure in a context such as this, and in its tech- nique. We shall now explore each of these in turn. 34