[2] Art historians see the painting as commentary on the role of gender, looking, and power in the social spaces of the nineteenth century.

Cassatt had an early passion for painting and convinced her father to allow her to attend art school at a time when it was unusual for women to do so.

[2] After her father gave her permission to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, she moved to Paris, where she practiced as a painter and exhibited with the Impressionists.

Impressionist painters often painted social settings such as cafes, popular boulevards, and opera houses.

Cassatt was empowered by the Impressionists to choose her own subject matter, ignoring the historical genres favored by the French Academy.

During the 19th century, the opera house was not only a place to watch a performance, but also a social gathering where high-class and bourgeois people would mingle.

Cassatt's choice of setting for In the Loge has been interpreted by scholars as a means of highlighting the growing agency of women in nineteenth-century society.

[5] The work remained in the possession of the artist's family until 1893 or 1894, when Cassatt sold it to Martin, Camentron, and Company in Paris.