Luncheon on the Rocks
Date1989
Artist
James Valerio
(American painter, printmaker, born 1938)
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions96 x 84 in. (243.8 x 213.4 cm)
Credit LineF. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 1989
Object number1989-49
On View
On viewCollections
ClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextValerio's painting is a contemporary response to Édouard Manet's well-known painting, Luncheon on the Grass, considered an exemplar of the French Realist movement. Valerio pays homage to Manet's masterpiece, while refusing to reproduce the scandalous elements of the French painting—the nude women posed with men in contemporary clothing. However, Valerio's abandoned picnic with a lurking snake, does capture some of the strangeness of Manet's picture.
Henry James Soulen
1945
