A Tabled reader emailed me this: Re the Manet, according to my Italian art history course, the Manet was a deliberate parody/challenge by him of two famous and revered Giorgione paintings (where the nude women and the clothed men were not seen as shocking by anybody, since they were 'classical'). His work can be seen as fully 'feminist'-aware in the terms of the time, between him and other revolutionary impressionists who were in so many ways challenging the assumptions and conventions of previous generations of artists and their society. The woman is a model and friend he often used (Victoire Meurent) - and also an artist member of the impressionists, and her direct gaze at us has been interpreted increasingly as both challenging and satirical, thus underlining his intention - think also of her direct gaze in the Olympia ('who you lookin at?!'. It was of course refused by the Paris Salon and so became one of the first in the Salon des Refusées.
A wonderful feast of a story, Julia! And being nostalgic... I remember that picnics in our family included some project. Usually a dam. While my grandmother unpacked the fried chicken and bread and butter sandwiches, my father and brother would be digging around and creating a dam in some nearby stream... me, mainly watching.
I think I shall make a bulk batch of these next year to take along to my regiment's annual camp! I love picnics, as long as they're not the sand-in-the-boring-sandwiches variety; as a child in Kenya, I went to the beach every Sunday, and the centrepiece of our picnic was Cornish pasties, wrapped in lots of pages of newsprint and still piping hot, the contribution of Mother's friend Hester, who was Cornish, and the sort of magnificent, larger-than-life character that makes fiction writers salivate! A bit like her pasties, really ...
Very interesting piece as always Julia. One tiny slip: you mention the increased availability of cars, trains and bikes at the start of the 19th century, but you must mean 20th.
A Tabled reader emailed me this: Re the Manet, according to my Italian art history course, the Manet was a deliberate parody/challenge by him of two famous and revered Giorgione paintings (where the nude women and the clothed men were not seen as shocking by anybody, since they were 'classical'). His work can be seen as fully 'feminist'-aware in the terms of the time, between him and other revolutionary impressionists who were in so many ways challenging the assumptions and conventions of previous generations of artists and their society. The woman is a model and friend he often used (Victoire Meurent) - and also an artist member of the impressionists, and her direct gaze at us has been interpreted increasingly as both challenging and satirical, thus underlining his intention - think also of her direct gaze in the Olympia ('who you lookin at?!'. It was of course refused by the Paris Salon and so became one of the first in the Salon des Refusées.
A wonderful feast of a story, Julia! And being nostalgic... I remember that picnics in our family included some project. Usually a dam. While my grandmother unpacked the fried chicken and bread and butter sandwiches, my father and brother would be digging around and creating a dam in some nearby stream... me, mainly watching.
Dams were another of my father's pleasures, too! Then undamming and watching the swoosh of water down the tiny stream.
YES!!
SIX BOTTLES PER HEAD?!?!?! That sounds like a fabulous party and a ghastly morning after. Where do I sign up?
En France?
Preferisco Italia...
I think I shall make a bulk batch of these next year to take along to my regiment's annual camp! I love picnics, as long as they're not the sand-in-the-boring-sandwiches variety; as a child in Kenya, I went to the beach every Sunday, and the centrepiece of our picnic was Cornish pasties, wrapped in lots of pages of newsprint and still piping hot, the contribution of Mother's friend Hester, who was Cornish, and the sort of magnificent, larger-than-life character that makes fiction writers salivate! A bit like her pasties, really ...
My mouth is WATERING! Hot Cornish pasties at a picnic? The height of luxury! I hope the tartlets measure up to those...Such a colourful reminiscence.
Very interesting piece as always Julia. One tiny slip: you mention the increased availability of cars, trains and bikes at the start of the 19th century, but you must mean 20th.
Oh, lawks! Thank you for pointing that out - I'll correct right now.
I hang my head in shame. In an earlier version of this post I spelled the novelist like the car...