Detail of the Study for Luncheon on the Grass by Manet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: Study for "Déjeuner sur l'herbe"

Artist: Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)

Date: ca. 1863–68

Geography: Country of Origin France

Culture: French

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 35 1/4 × 45 7/8 in. (89.5 × 116.5 cm)
Framed: 44 13/16 × 55 11/16 × 5 1/8 in., 63.9 lb. (113.8 × 141.5 × 13 cm, 29 kg)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust) (P.1932.SC.232)


This work is a version of Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe, the startling depiction of a picnic scene with two nearly naked women in the company of fully clothed men that became the artist’s first succès de scandale in 1863. The painting draws on his study of famed Italian Renaissance artworks, yet reframes those references into an entirely new style and context. Rejected by the official French Salon in 1863, it was hung instead at the Salon des Refusés, where it won him immediate notoriety. The broad strokes and seemingly quick application of paint in the version he exhibited belie the fact that the artist worked on the composition for a good year before showing it. This work may have been part of that preparatory process.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/845746