Édouard Manet, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, 1863
Manet’s scene of picnicking Parisians caused a scandal when it debuted at the Salon des Refusés, the alternative exhibition made up of works rejected by the jurors of the annual Salon—the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts that set artistic standards in France. The most vociferous objections to Manet’s work centered on the depiction of a nude woman in the company of men dressed in contemporary clothes. Based on motifs borrowed from such Renaissance greats as Raphael and Giorgione, Le Déjeuner was a cheeky send up of classical figuration—an insolent mash-up of modern life and painting tradition.
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