[2] By 1876, Marguerite and her husband became known for holding Friday salons at their house at 11-13 rue de Grenelle, attracting the most famous writers, artists, musicians, and politicians in Paris.

He submitted the bust portrait of Madame Georges Charpentier, showing her head in three-quarters pose to the right, and that of Georgette, along with six other paintings to the third Impressionist exhibition on the Rue Le Peletier in April 1877.

British art historian Colin B. Bailey argues that these portraits of Madame Charpentier and Georgette were a trial run for his subsequent work that would reach the Salon just several years later.

The fact that Madame wears a stylish and graceful gown appropriate for guests in the midst of this private setting instead of clothing unique to the boudoir, preserves the demarcation enforced between the personal and the social.

[13] Her black dress with lace and a bodice fastened at her neck with a ribbon, opens to display her throat, while she sits on a divan cushion with her hand on her knee with her children next to her.

[16][17] Léonce Bénédite describes the painting as one of Renoir's best works, and expresses regret that it should have ever left France "where its place awaited it by the side of the masterpieces of our national artists".

[18] Kathleen Adler of the National Gallery writes that "Renoir's portraits of female sitters often include references to a setting that serves to position them in terms of wealth and status".

Their daughters began the process of selling their collection in an auction with Madame Charpentier and Her Children advertised for sale with competition from art dealers around the world expected to generate interest.

[21] Art curator Trevor Fairbrother notes that American artist John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) draws upon similar depictions in his painting The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882).

[22] Art historian Anne Dawson observes that the visual elements in the portrait Emma and Her Children (1923) by American realist painter George Wesley Bellows (1882–1925) are suggestive of Renoir's painting.