Edouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe: A Deep Dive

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe by Edouard Manet: A Closer Look

Techniques and Styles

Unconventional painting methods angered the public. Manet abandoned chiaroscuro in favor of sharp contrasts between light and shade. He painted shapes with large patches of pure color for greater modernity and vitality. Critics called his style "spotty." The intense green enlivens the landscape, the yellows and reds dominate the still life, while the pure white and smooth skin tones reduce Victorine's body to nearly flat surfaces of light.

Manet, in his execution, leaves the careful style of academic literature. He draws the figures without contour lines. The background has no details, it is simply outlined. It has a total disregard for the rules of perspective. The characters seem perfectly integrated, ignoring perspective and the absence of depth. With Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Manet imposes a new freedom on the subject and the traditional modes of representation.

The bodies seem to lack volume because the traditional chiaroscuro has disappeared. There are strong contrasts of light and shadow. The color is subordinated to the lighting effects. The real issue was the light in the painting. The Impressionists saw Manet as a model to follow. Despite being on the sidelines of Impressionism, criticism would come to designate him as the "father" of this trend.

Composition

Manet foregrounds three characters: a naked woman and two men dressed in the fashion of the time. In the background, we see another woman, with a light dress, taking a bath. She is too large compared to the others and produces the sensation of floating. The background is airy and lacks depth, suggesting an interior scene. The swimmer and the boat beside her defy the laws of perspective. It seems as if Manet rejected the notions of spatial depth, foregrounding all figures.

The composition is organized into several triangles: two vertices are male heads, repeating in the model's legs and the man on the right. Another larger triangle has its apex at the girl in the background. There is another encompassing four figures and whose apex is the brightly colored bird that appears at the center and higher.

Influences and Relations

Manet made his first trip to Spain in 1865 and admired Murillo, Goya, and Velazquez. Manet was inspired by museum paintings by other artists and developed very personal copies. Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe is inspired by Giorgione's Concert Champêtre, a mythological painting.

Most critics rejected the work, reproaching both the technique used and the theme. This painting would inspire later artists. Picasso worked, inspired by this work, on some 27 paintings and 150 drawings. The painting can be interpreted as a modern-day country concert, a play, or Titian's Renaissance Concert Champêtre, attributed to Giorgione as the source. It is therefore that the composition seems to derive from an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi.

Details of the Painting

• Title: Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe
• Artist: Edouard Manet
• Year: 1863
• Style: Realism, Pre-Impressionism
• Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris
• Technique: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 2.13 x 2.69 m

Function

The intention of this work was to exhibit it in the Salon, as it was the best way to attract potential believers.

Impact of the Work

In 1863, the Paris Salon jury was stern in rejecting some 4,000 paintings, discarding any progressive trend. In view of the controversy and resentment, Napoleon III decided to create the Salon des Refusés to exhibit works rejected by the judges. Among them was the one that represents the beginning of modern painting: Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe.

Theme

The work depicts a scene with two women, one naked and another in a shirt who refreshes herself in the Seine River near the town of Argenteuil. They are accompanied by two fully clothed men. Except for the woman seen in the creek, the rest of the figures are seated on the grass.

The public thought the issue was vulgar and offensive, understanding that it represented an immoral relationship between two men and a prostitute. However, Manet was inspired by Raphael's engraving The Judgment of Paris, representing three gods of Classical antiquity swimming along a river. He reinterpreted the scene, replacing the gods with contemporary figures, evoking a scene of daily life.

The naked woman has been identified as Victorine Meurent, a model of modest origins. She is not an idealized fantasy but a surprisingly real, identifiable person. The two male figures are identified with Manet's brother and his future brother-in-law.