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carolyn hammett | all galleries >> Galleries >> Paris May 2009 > Reading about Manet's "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe" - 1863
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07-MAY-2009

Reading about Manet's "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe" - 1863

A young woman is seen here reading about Edouard Manet's scandalous "Dejeuner sur l"Herbe" (Luncheon on the Grass), from 1863.
The painting was shocking because it depicted two nude women enjoying a picnic in the company of two clothed gentlemen.
The composition was borrowed from Macantonio Raimondi engraving of a highly revered, lost painting of Raphael 's "Judgement of Paris".
It was also shocking because it was a subject of common people, rather than a subject from history, mythology or religion.
These topics were considered "appropriate subjects" (along with portraiture and landscapes) for many centuries.
This painting was therefore a slap in the face of accepted or " Academic art".
The sketchy quality of the paintwork was not understood by a public used to looking at highly finished paintings where the brushwork didn't show.
The shocker became a rallying cry for modernism along with the next image.

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