Édouard Manet, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe
Édouard Manet painted Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, a sizable oil painting on canvas, in 1862 and 1863. On a picnic with two fully dressed males in a rural area, it features a woman who is naked and another who is just partially clothed. When the Salon jury of 1863 rejected this painting, Manet grabbed the chance to exhibit it along with two other works in the Salon des Refusés, where it garnered widespread attention and controversy. The piece is currently housed at Paris' Musée d'Orsay.
In the picture, a naked woman and two dressed males are shown having lunch together. She is lighted starkly, and she directs her gaze towards the observer. She sits next to the two males who are costumed as youthful dandies. The woman's garments, a basket of fruit, and a round loaf of bread are set out in front of them like objects in a still life. A woman bathing in a creek in the background is just slightly larger than the individuals in the front. The man to the right is dressed in an indoor-appropriate flat hat with tassel.
There is a lot about the artwork that is unknown, including when Manet actually started painting it, how he came up with the idea, and what kind of preparatory work he conducted. The painting actually remained in Manet's ownership until 1878, when Jean-Baptiste Faure purchased it for just 2,600 Francs, despite the fact that Manet had stated it had originally been valued at 25,000 Francs in 1871.
When Manet's painting of a group of Parisians having a picnic made its debut at the Salon des Refusés, an alternate exhibition of works that the jurors of the annual Salon—the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts that established standards for French art—had rejected, there was outrage. The most vocal criticisms of Manet's artwork focused on the portrayal of a naked woman with men wearing modern attire. Le Déjeuner was a flippant parody of classical figuration—an irreverent mash-up of contemporary life and painting tradition—based on themes appropriated from Renaissance masters like Raphael and Giorgione.
Artist: Édouard Manet
Created: 1863
