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Edouard Manet’s 1863 painting, Luncheon on the Grass (“Déjeuner sur l’Herbe”) was a landmark work of Impressionism. The painting depicts four people—two bourgeois-seeming gentlemen, a female nude, and a woman bathing in a stream—at rest in a wooded vale. A golden basket of fruit atop the nude woman’s clothes seems to suggest a picnic. Although today’s viewers may find this scene tame, the French Académie des Beaux-Arts refused to exhibit the painting in their Salon. Manet instead exhibited it in the famous Salon des Refusés in 1863. Read on, the better to feast on this masterpiece.
By analyzing questions, you can see patterns emerge, patterns that will help you answer questions. Qwiz5 is all about those patterns. In each installment of Qwiz5, we take an answer line and look at its five most common clues. Here we explore five clues that will help you answer a tossup on Luncheon on the Grass.
PASTORAL CONCERT
Despite its radical subject matter, Luncheon on the Grass is deeply indebted to artworks of the past. One of those works was the 16th century oil painting The Pastoral Concert, painted by either Titian or Giorgione. The thematic connection between these works is immediately apparent. The Pastoral Concert features two men and two women in an outdoor setting. One of the men, dressed in red and black, plays the lute for his male companion dressed in brown. The men are oblivious to the women—one bathes on the left side of the painting, the other sits in the painting’s center fully nude, her back turned towards the viewer.
THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS
Manet wasn’t just inspired by paintings. He also drew ideas from the Marcantonio Raimondi engraving, “The Judgment of Paris.” The engraving depicts the inciting incident of the Trojan War, Paris’s selection of Aphrodite as the most beautiful Goddess over Hera and Athena. Manet was drawn to three obscure figures in the engraving’s lower right corner—two river gods and a water nymph. Their poses are mirrored in three of Manet’s four figures.
VICTORINE MEURENT
Manet’s favorite model was French artist Victorine Meurent. In addition to serving as the model for the central figure in Manet’s Olympia, she also appears in Luncheon on the Grass. In the latter painting, Meurent is the nude female in the painting’s center, her gaze turned towards the viewer. Unfortunately, few of Meurent’s works survive to this day, but her self-portrait can be found in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
FERDINAND LEENHOFF
Manet used the likenesses of his brothers Eugène and Gustave for the man on the right of the painting, reclining with his back towards the viewer. The other male figure, sitting next to the female nude, is modeled on Manet’s brother-in-law, Ferdinand Leenhoff. Leenhoff was himself a sculptor, and his sister—Manet’s wife Suzanne—was a pianist. Suzanne was also a frequent model for her husband’s paintings.
THE BATHING WOMAN AND THE ROWBOAT
One interesting aspect of Luncheon on the Grass is the way it plays with perspective. The painting contains another figure in addition to the three discussed already, a woman wearing a chemise and bathing herself in the painting’s background. The woman is far larger than she should be in comparison to the three figures at the painting’s center and the rowboat to her right.
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Quizbowl is about learning, not rote memorization, so we encourage you to use this as a springboard for further reading rather than as an endpoint. Here are a few things to check out:
To learn more about Victorine Meurent’s life and works, check out this post.
This article takes a deep dive into Luncheon on the Grass, including a discussion of the works that influenced it.
What was the deal with the Salon des Refusés? And why should we care about a bunch of rejects?
Manet was fond of optical illusions and games of perspective in his paintings, as you'll see in this video.
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