Global Food Tour

Chapter 326 Lunch on the Grass.

At the age of 31, Manet exhibited "Luncheon on the Grass" at the unsuccessful Salon, which caused an uproar in Paris and was attacked by Napoleon III and public opinion.But Zola affirmed his art.Manet has always blended classical noble temperament and gorgeous impressionistic colors in his paintings. In 1882, the Salon exhibited his last work "The Bar of Foley Berger", which was a great success, and he was officially awarded the "Medal of the Legion of Honor".

Manet, who was ill, said: "It is too late." On April 4 of the following year, Manet left forever the world of light and color he loved.

So the boy playing the piccolo became a masterpiece of the origin of Impressionism...

The next painter Zhang Feng saw was Jean Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870), who was born in a Protestant bourgeois upper-class family in Montpellier.When Bazille studied medicine and painting in Paris, medicine bored him and soon led to the failure of his studies, while painting made him happy.

When Frédéric Bazille signed up and studied in the studio of the Swiss painter Greer, he met three painters, Monet, Renoir and Sisley, and soon became close friends.Although Bazille's life is not very rich, he can often help them.Sometimes Bazille painted in the sun with Monet and sometimes with Renoir.It is acknowledged that Bazille, more than anyone else, was obsessed with bright colors and the freshness of air.

In this way, fate linked the pioneers of Impressionism together, although they did not know that they were preparing for the painting school more than ten years later.

Among the painters who created Impressionism, Frédéric Bazille was the most enthusiastic and enthusiastic, and he was also considered by his friends to be the most talented.But by the time the school began to meet the public, the first Impressionists in 1874, Bazille was no longer among them.Bazille joined the Zouaf team and was killed in the war.The newly born Impressionism lost one of its most outstanding members.In the years that followed, the painter who died in battle was often forgotten.

However, time will eventually restore things to their true colors, allowing people to discover the excellence of Frédéric Bazille.Bazille seems to have played a link between the past and the future between Courbet and the Impressionism represented by himself.Bazille makes one understand how the aesthetic revolution of the nineteenth century developed logically and coherently, and is thus linked to classicism far more than those concerned realize.If Bazille had not died, but had become, as one might imagine, a master of Impressionism, the role of his works might not have been so remarkable.One can see amazing skill in Bazille's paintings, and each work is powerful and complete.

What Zhang Feng saw was a family portrait. Although he was not familiar with it, he had seen it on many occasions... Some websites used it to match the cover of the novel "A Noble House", which made Zhang Feng very speechless.

Lunch on the grass.A controversial painting by Manet at the time.To say there is controversy is an understatement.

He submitted it to the jury of the annual Art Exhibition in 1863.Anyone who understands art history will recognize it at a glance. Its theme is borrowed from a masterpiece "Pastoral Concerto" by the 16th-century Venetian painter Giorgione or Titian, and professionals and critics at that time were naturally no exception. , because this painting is in the Louvre.

"Pastoral Concerto" is already a very cryptic work, and each character on the screen has symbolic connotations. Some people speculate that they represent the muses and lyric poets in Greek mythology.In comparison, Manet's intention is even more puzzling.He painted four modern people on the grass in the suburbs: the nude on the left is his favorite model; the one in the middle is his own brother; Nye's relative; the woman in the distance is unrecognizable.

No matter how the critics looked at it, they believed that Manet's works could not be compared with their Renaissance predecessors in terms of elegant shape or rigorous color.His way of applying paint is too rough, and it is really inappropriate to paint nude women next to well-dressed gentlemen.

In 1863, "Luncheon on the Grass" was exhibited in the Losers Salon, which caused a rare sensation in the world. He directly expressed the worldly environment, and painted naked women and well-dressed gentlemen together. Carrying out bold innovations, getting rid of the fine brushwork and a large number of sepia tones in traditional painting, replacing them with bright, bright, contrasting, almost flat generalized color blocks, all of which made the official academic school unbearable.

In terms of composition, the figures are placed in the same kind of densely wooded background, and a limited depth is developed in the center. The bent woman not far from the middle becomes a classical triangular composition composed of the three figures in the foreground. vertex.In terms of technique, the idea of ​​painting as a two-dimensional surface has been further advanced, and a new attempt has been made to appear under external light and dark background, so this painting is an innovation in terms of artistic skills and historical significance.

At that time, most people were a little unaccustomed to the content of this painting, which had not been seen in real life in Paris.

Some people say that it is absurd for the painter to conceive the way of life of modern people in this way.If there are no two handsome young men in the painting, isn't it common to the French and common in Western paintings of all ages, such as the bathing picture or the mythical figure Diana? If you also include the two If the man’s clothes are taken off, isn’t that similar to the mythical nude paintings of Raphael or Tintoretto? It is precisely because this nude woman is strongly drawn between two well-dressed modern men in Paris. In contrast, it seriously impacted people's emotions.

At the exhibitions of the time, enlightened French gentlemen also accused Manet of being too "unrefined" in his colours.

When the painting appeared in the exhibition hall, it was as if a large hole had been chiseled in the wall of a magnificent building, which was very eye-catching.No matter the characters or the light and shade of the color, the painting is full of sharp contrast.Such a strange idea.They have nothing to do with the "construction" of the academic school, and even the realist painters were stunned.This is the situation at the time of this important masterpiece of Manet.

Sisley was also an important member of the Impressionists, and was a classmate with Monet in his early years.He was not famous when he was alive, and his honor in Impressionism was not as good as the painters introduced earlier.

(End of this chapter)