Blog Marco

Art is no stranger to controversy. Many paintings that hang in our galleries today have a story and some of them are controversial. But as time goes by, the significance of the original controversy is lost in time (or only to people who study art). Personally, I have an interest, but I don't study Art. I look at art as they hang in the galleries - but there are too many artworks - and to intimately know the story behind each one is simply out of my league. Anyway, I did come across one story recently. A story about controversy in art which happened over a hundred years ago.

So what is this controversial artwork? I'm looking at the painting called "Le déjeuner sur l'herbe" or "Luncheon on the Grass" by famous painter, Édouard Manet who painted this painting in 1863. There are a party of three in a parkland having lunch, two fully dressed men and a naked lady; then there is a woman in the water in the background doing something. So where is the controversy and scandal in this painting?

If I were at an art gallery, I wouldn't see any controversy about this artwork. My depth of knowledge is basically nothing when it comes to art. If I were at the gallery looking at this picture I'll probably be looking at the brush strokes and just dismissing the naked woman as "just another one of those paintings" since we have galleries full of painted naked women.

The controversy lies in the fact that the two men were fully clothed and having lunch with the naked lady. It was illegal for men to hang out with naked women in public. Also, Manet's dad was a high ranking judge of France. Compare this painting with another painting of the period: "Romans in the Decadence of the Empire" painted in 1847 by Thomas Coutre. You've got a scene with Romans lying about with naked women which appears to be the day after a massive orgy. It seems that, just as long as the scene was "not of this time" there wasn't much controversy compared to a nude woman and fully dressed men (dressed in period clothing).

There are other elements which contribute to the controversial aspect of this artwork by Manet. (Again, not detected by me, but by some art scholar) First clue that the painting is trying to poke at the authorities to spark controversy is the overturned picnic basket with the food all disorganised. Walk around the galleries in Paris and you'll find many paintings with fruit and still life - but their contents are all organised and meticulous. So this represents that something was wrong. Also there is a frog in the bottom left (which can't be seen clearly here) which is very roughly finished. There is also a bird of some type flying overhead. This art scholar (or critic?) mentioned how the bird was shaped = it looked like a dove or something that you would see flying in some religious painting. Another point is the bathing woman in the background. Is she really bathing? Looking carefully at her posture, the scholar reckons she is pissing herself which further adds to the scandal. But I guess that is open to interpretation?

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