Jeanne Samary is the daughter of artists: her father was cellist at the Paris Opera, and two of her aunts actresses at the Comédie Française, as well as her grandmother.
But today Jeanne is best known for the dozen portraits of Renoir, who also made it appear in The Breakfast of the Boaters (1881).
La Rêverie (1877) obtained mixed success at the Impressionist exhibition of 1877, although it did not please Miss Samary because she did not value her social status sufficiently.
Renoir in 1879 presents a portrait supposed to more satisfy his model, foot and ballroom. But, less well exposed than that of Sarah Bernhardt, the portrait met with less success and Miss Samary would have been angry.
After three years of collaboration, Jeanne Samary preferred to Renoir painters from the academic school who, according to her, were more likely to value it. She chose among others Louise Abbema or Ferdinand Humbert, who made his portrait in 1890, just before his death.
