Category: Fine Art

It was a popular theme, for a while:  people having a picnic lunch en plain air, in some park or other.  Here’s (I think) the best-known example of “Dejeuner sur l’herbe”, painted by Edouard Manet:

(all pics can be right-clicked/embiggened)

His similarly named contemporary Claude Monet also did one (albeit less shockingly):

…and Paul Cézanne did two:

  (I’m pretty sure the second was painted during his Drunken Phase, but whatever.)

Here’s Marcel Dyf’s pair:

…although it must be said that Dyf had a thing about barely-pubescent girls, the dirty old sod.

Of course, Picasso had to add his two pesetas:

…while Egon Schiele went off-script completely:

Some American guy followed the trend:

…but he cocked it up completely, i.e. no nudity — I’m frankly surprised that he had wine in the pic.

The theme has continued into the modern era, mostly through photography (here’s Robert Doisneau):

…and in glorious (?) color:

…and even as a party theme:

There’s been some modern art on the topic, of course. Here’s Chinese artist Yue Minjun:

…which made me howl with laughter.  Absolutely brilliant satire.

There was even a French movie entitled “Dejeuner sur l’herbe”.  Here’s a still:

And yes, that was yesterday’s Caption Competition pic.

I really, really like the work of one-time civil engineer and now photographer Alec Dawson.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, each one of Dawson’s eerie still-life pics is a volume.  Here are several of my favorites (right-click to embiggen).

In case you missed the detail:

Some suggest abandonment:

And then there are the more explicit (and even more tragic) ones:

I could write a short story — or possibly a novella — about each and every one of these, simply because of the feelings and emotions contained in that simple picture.

I’m not even going to get into the lighting, other to say that it’s a rare skill to light a night scene without making it look contrived and artificial.  And if these pics are nothing else, they’re realistic, almost hyper-realistic.

While all the above are part of Dawson’s Nocturna  series, here’s a video sample of Nobody Claps Anymore.  The man’s a genius.

From Alan Fearnley, of whom I have spoken before (right-click to embiggen):

Yes, it’s a romantic 1950s-era scene — the period I yearn for.

As a rule, I tend to prefer Impressionist landscape paintings, such as Monet’s Morning:

That doesn’t mean I’m completely averse to the more realistic style, though, and I also think that 19th-century American painters are quite noteworthy, especially those of the Hudson Valley School.  Here are a few from John William Casilear, for example, that are quite lovely:

Hudson View
(One might think that this is an Impressionist painting, unless one has actually seen the Upper Hudson Valley at this time of day…)

Lake George (early)

Lake George (later)

Saratoga Springs

New Hampshire Beach

Sea Scene

Sunset

My favorite Casilear, though, is a moodier piece:

Moon Rise

Landscape art, I think, is supposed to calm the viewer and make them wonder at the beauty of Nature.  Casilear’s work does that, in spades.