Perhaps the most common epithet attributed to Edouard Manet's painting "Breakfast on the Grass" is "notorious". What's the matter?
French artist Edouard Manet (1832–1883) played a significant role on the stage of European art in the 19th century. He developed his own unique style and bridged the gap between the main artistic styles of his time: realism and impressionism. One of his most famous works, "Lunch on the Grass" ("Le déjeuner sur l'herbe"), can serve as an illustration of this approach.
Before considering this picture, let's try to learn a little about the artist.
Who is Edouard Manet?
Édouard Manet was born in Paris. The father did not welcome his son's interest in painting. However, his uncle, his mother's brother Edmond-Edouard Fournier, supported his nephew's hobby: he paid for lectures on painting and took him to museums.
Edward made an attempt to enter a nautical school. At the age of 17, he went on a sailing ship on a long training voyage, during which he painted a lot.
After his son returned home in the summer of 1849, his father became convinced of his artistic talent and, finally, supported his desire to study painting. But even then Edouard Manet showed the character and independence of artistic thinking. Instead of the School of Fine Arts with its rigorous academic program, he entered the studio of the then fashionable artist Tom Couture. But he soon became disillusioned with his approach, precisely because of Couture's strict adherence to the Académie standards.
Edouard Manet became an artist known for his modernist approach to painting. Unlike many of his predecessors, Manet rejected the traditional tastes of the Acquémie des Beaux-Arts, the organization responsible for hosting the annual art salons in France. Instead of allegorical, historical and mythological scenes, he preferred to depict scenes from everyday life.
The painter considered himself a realist for most of his career. However, after meeting with Impressionist painters in 1868, he developed his own style, in which he easily mixed dissimilar approaches.
Five years before meeting the Impressionists, his large-scale oil painting Breakfast on the Grass (1863) already reflected this distinctive attitude to painting and became the forerunner of Impressionism.
"Breakfast on the grass" outside the canons
The situation depicted by the author in the picture would seem to be common - men and women had a picnic in the open air. But some things look completely unusual. One of the women sits in a close circle with two men, their legs are practically intertwined, while she is completely naked and shamelessly stares at the audience. No one in the company depicted is embarrassed by this. But the audience is not just confused, but outraged.
At that time, only gods and goddesses were allowed to appear naked in works of art. Mythical or allegorical nude figures have been widespread throughout art history, but not images of ordinary worldly women in their daily lives. Edouard Manet broke this taboo.
The artist did not write on the then popular classical themes, but was inspired by them. The composition "Breakfast on the Grass" directly refers to such works of Italian art of the 16th century as the painting "Open Air Concert" ("Pastoral Concert", "Country Concert") by Giorgione and / or Titian and engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi "The Judgment of Paris" after the lost original Raphael Santi. Manet was inspired by the poses of the two river gods and a water nymph in the lower right corner of the engraving, as well as the company of naked women and dressed men in the painting.
An innovation was the large canvas size for a painting with a secular theme: 208 × 264.5 cm. Typically, a canvas of this size was used for academic paintings with allegorical images or mythological and historical themes.
It is noteworthy that Manet wrote in the foreground of the people he knew. One of the men is the sculptor Ferdinand Leenhoff, and the other is one of the Manet brothers: either Eugene or Gustave. The woman in the foreground of the image is Quiz Louise Meuran, who posed for the equally controversial Olympia written in the same year and for other paintings by Edouard Manet.
Scandal
Edouard Manet wanted to present his Breakfast on the Grass at the prestigious Paris Salon in 1863. But his work was rejected and was not allowed to be exhibited. Then he showed it at the Salon of Outcasts, an exhibition organized by Napoleon III as a reaction to the too strict criteria for selecting works for official display.
Viewers and critics did not accept Manet's painting. The scandal erupted not only because the picture shook the morality of the public. The artist was accused of ignorance and inability to observe the laws of perspective. Indeed, Manet allowed himself to violate the principles of depicting spatial depth and observing proportions: the woman in the background is too large, and the boat is disproportionately small, the river looks like a shallow puddle, and even the winter bird bullfinch sits on a branch right above the summer bather. Mockery, and nothing more.
Nevertheless, the painting "Breakfast on the Grass" became the predecessor of Impressionism, the starting point for the development of art in a new way, free from the draconian academic framework.
