Two fully dressed men picnic in the woods beside a completely naked woman, who looks out at us as if nothing were unusual. Shown at the Salon des Refusés in 1863, the painting caused uproar and ridicule, a landmark in the birth of modern art.
Key facts
- Artist
- Édouard Manet1832–1883 · French
- Date
- 1863
- Period
- Impressionism1860–1890
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 208 × 264.5 cm
- Location
- Musée d'Orsay Paris, France
Actual size
Compared with an adult 170 cm tall
Palette
#2D2C1C#42402C#615E44#89866B#C7C0A2Background
In 1863 the official Salon rejected more than three thousand works, and the rejected artists protested. Napoleon III ordered a separate Salon des Refusés so the public could judge for itself. Manet's painting became the most talked-about and most mocked work in the show.
The composition is borrowed from the Renaissance: the poses of the three foreground figures come from Marcantonio Raimondi's engraving after Raphael's Judgment of Paris, and the subject echoes the Pastoral Concert in the Louvre. But Manet replaced the mythological figures with Parisians in contemporary dress.
The nude was modelled by Victorine Meurent; the two men were modelled by Manet's brother and his future brother-in-law.
Technique & composition
Manet painted in flat areas with sharp contrasts; the nude's body has almost no shading and stands out starkly against the dark background. Critics called it unfinished, yet this flatness opened the path of modern painting.
The space is deliberately inconsistent: in the background is too large in relation to the foreground figures and seems to float. Manet appears to break traditional perspective on purpose, reminding us that this is a painting, not a window onto reality.
at lower left form a superb still life, showing Manet's masterly brushwork.
Details
Symbolism
The nude who stares back
rests her chin on her hand and looks straight at us without embarrassment. She is not a mythological goddess but a real modern woman, which made viewers of the time uncomfortable and offended.
The bullfinch in the tree
At the top of the picture a flies among the branches. In French slang the bird was associated with lewdness, perhaps a sly hint left by Manet.
Stories
- Did you know?
Napoleon III reportedly found the painting indecent when he visited the Salon des Refusés.
- Did you know?
Monet painted his own Luncheon on the Grass in 1865, showing fully clothed Parisians picnicking in the woods; the canvas was later damaged and survives only in fragments.
Legacy
Luncheon on the Grass is regarded as one of the starting points of modern art. It inspired the young Impressionists; Monet and Cézanne both painted the subject, and a century later Picasso made dozens of variations on it.
