À propos de l’œuvre
Lunch on the Grass, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1865 -1866 · left fragment of a composition of more than six meters
Lunch on the Grass - left fragmenthand painted reproduction
Three walkers emerge under a vault of foliage: this spectacular panel is one of only two vestiges of young Monet's most ambitious project.
Look at the work
Vertical piece reveals scale of missing painting
The fragment shows three elegantly dressed figures in a clearing. Frédéric Bazille, friend and workshop companion of Monet, appears on the left. The two women stand out with their light dresses, their red ribbons and the light that catches the fabrics.
The extremely narrow framing was not that of the original work. The panel belonged to a picnic scene more than four meters high by more than six meters wide, designed in response to the Luncheon on the Grass presented by Manet in 1863.
To look at this fragment is to mentally reconstruct an absent painting: the figures continue off-camera and the foliage preserves the memory of a vast clearing.
Composition, touch and light
What Monet builds behind the impression of snapshot
Three precise elements allow us to understand this composition and the essential difficulties of faithful reproduction.
A vertical born from a cutout
The 418 cm height compared to only 150 cm width today produces a silhouette of a decorative panel. This proportion results from the rescue of the damaged canvas.
Dresses modeled by contrasts
Monet contrasts Bazille's black suit with the bluish grays, beiges and reds of the dresses. The contours remain firm, but the light already fragments the colors.
Foliage as a ceiling
The dark mass at the top is pierced with brighter greens and small blue holes. It gives the clearing an almost theatrical depth and concentrates the light on the figures.
Details and visual documents
Observe the material and the exact version
The complementary images are chosen to show difficult-to-read passages in the full view and, where available, the actual appearance of the work at the museum.
The best reusable source available for this fragment measures 894 × 2596 px. It is kept at its actual size; details are cropping, without artificial enlargement.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
The facts below concern this specific version and are verified from the notice of the institution which keeps it.
A challenge addressed to Manet
Begun in the spring of 1865, the composition was to respond to Manet's painting and allow Monet to establish himself at the Salon of 1866. He gave up before the opening.
The canvas recovered then cut
Pawned to an owner in 1878, the canvas suffered from humidity. Monet recovered it in 1884 and cut it; two fragments remain in Orsay, a third has disappeared.
Don George Wildenstein
The left fragment entered the national collections through the donation from Georges Wildenstein in 1957. It bears the number RF 1957 7.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The very vertical proportion specific to the left fragment
- The contrast between the black suit and the bright dresses
- Red accents without making them uniform
- The many values of green in dark foliage
Work sheet
| Title | Lunch on the Grass - left fragment |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1865 - 1866 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 418 × 150 cm |
| Orientation | Very narrow vertical |
| Conservation | Musée d'Orsay, Paris · upper level, room 29 |
| Inventory | RF 1957 7 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This unusual format is suitable for a large wall height, stairwell or narrow space. Excessively reducing the canvas would cause the figures to lose their life-size effect.
