The Luncheon on the Grass

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''The Luncheon on the Grass''

Édouard Manet, 1862–1863

oil on canvas

208 × 265.5 cm, 81.9 × 104.5 inches

Musée d'Orsay

The Luncheon on the Grass (Le déjeuner sur l'herbe), originally titled The Bath (Le Bain), is an oil on canvas painting by Édouard Manet. Painted between 1862 and 1863 it measures 208 by 264.5 centimetres (81.9 x 104.5 in). The juxtaposition of a female nude with fully dressed men sparked controversy when the work was first exhibited at the Salon des Refusés in 1863. The piece is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Commenting on the work in 1867, Emile Zola wrote:

"Painters, and Especially Édouard Manet, who is an analytic painter, do not share the masses' obsession with the subject: to them, the subject is only a pretext to paint, whereas for the masses only the subject exists."

[edit] Description

In the foreground, three characters are seated on the grass: a naked woman and two men dressed like dandies. The woman, whose body is starkly lit, looks frankly in the direction of the viewer. The man on the right wears a flat hat with a tassel. The men seem to be engaged in conversation, ignoring the woman. In front of them, the clothes of the woman, a basket of fruit and a round loaf of bread are displayed as in a still life. In the background, another woman is draped in an almost transparent cloth, bathing in a small pond. Too large in comparison with the figures in the foreground, she seems to float. The roughly painted background lacks depth — giving the viewer the impression that the scene does not take place outdoors, but in a studio. The impression is reinforced by the use of broad "photographic" light, which casts almost no shadows: in fact, the lighting of the scene is inconsistent and unnatural. The hat the man wears was normally only for indoor use.

Manet's wife, Suzanne Leenhoff, and his favorite model, Victorine Meurent, both modelled for the nude woman, which has Meurent's face but the plumper Leenhoff's body. The man on the left is probably Manet's brother-in-law Rodolphe Leenhoff.

The style of the painting breaks with the academic traditions of the time. Manet used a harsh, "photographic" light that eliminates the mid-tones. He did not try to hide the brush strokes: indeed, the painting looks unfinished in some parts of the scenery. The nude is a far cry from the smooth, flawless figures of Cabanel or Ingres.

Despite the mundane subject, Manet deliberately chose a large canvas size, normally reserved for grander subjects.

[edit] Books

• Ross King. The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade that Gave the World Impressionism. New York: Waller & Company, 2006 ISBN 0-8027-1466-8. Pages 49-51, 86-89.