Watteau’s The Collation or Lunch in the Open (1710-1720s c.) is intimate and picnicky. Among his works, it is the most like a déjeuner sur l’herbe, except for his hunt luncheon subjects. As usual, for the French, the subject is not referred to as un pique-nique, though the word was used for indoor dining.
The group may (or may not) be lovers at a partie carrée. (See Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe) The couples earnestly engage in conversation, being together and enjoying an alfresco meal. An intimate scene such as this, which implies sexuality, was known as a partie carrée or lover’s tryst. The setting is a garden lawn on which lunch or collation of roasted chicken, bread, and wine is served on a startling white cloth. A man pours wine from a carafe into the glass that a woman holds expectantly. Next to her, another woman has a wine glass and looks intently at the man standing next to her. He holds up his hand, but she looks up into his face, not at his hand. The position of the couples and the ease of their postures show that the moment is private (Preparations are low-key, and there are no servants visible).
Jean Moyreau. The Lunch [La Colation after Jean-Antoine Watteau (1729), etching. Widener Collection, Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Featured Image: Jean Moyreau. The Lunch [La Collation] after Jean-Antoine Watteau (1729), etching. Widener Collection, Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
See Jean-Antoine Watteau. La Collation [Imbiss in Freien or Lunch in the Open] (1721c.), oil on canvas. The Oskar Reinhart Collection; Posner. Antoine Watteau. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1984