Judith Deim’s The Beach Picnic (1936)

Judith Deim’s The Beach Picnic (1936)

Deim’s The Beach Picnic is a portrait of the Cannery Row crowd in Monterey, California.  Among the picnickers are John Steinbeck, the kneeling figure lighting the fire, Ed Rickets (bearded) and reclining with a beer in hand, Deim playing the guitar, looks down at...
Walt Disney’s Donald Duck’s Picnic (1939)

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck’s Picnic (1939)

At first, Donald Duck’s beach picnic is a pleasant outing. Donald and Pluto set up on the beach for a perfect day. Donald plants an umbrella for shade and spreads a blanket for food. Expectations are high. It doesn’t last, as usual. The picnic turmoil is classic....
Victor Fleming’s Gone With the Wind (1939)

Victor Fleming’s Gone With the Wind (1939)

Arriving at Twelve Oaks garden party, Gerald O’Hara is pleased to say, “Well, John Wilkes, it’s a grand day you’ll be havin’ for the barbecue.” It’s momentous because it is the beginning of Scarlett and Rhett Butler’s...
Reginald Marsh’s Beach Picnic (1939)

Reginald Marsh’s Beach Picnic (1939)

This is a favorite among Marsh’s Coney Island images. In this instance, a collection of Venuses.  Compare it with John Sloan’s South Beach Bathers and Mabel Dwight’s Coney Island Beach. Featured Image: Beach Picnic (1939). Engraving.
Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1940)

Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1940)

Only 2:07 seconds of screen time, but it’s an unpleasant crackling picnic that ends with a slap in the face. Despite the southern Florida heat, Charles Foster Kane and Susan Alexander are lounging by a crackling fireplace in Xanadu, their palatial estate: he in...
Jacob Lawrence’s They Arrived in Pittsburgh (1941)

Jacob Lawrence’s They Arrived in Pittsburgh (1941)

The yellow basket and the yellow summer hat in They Arrived in Pittsburgh suggest that there will be a picnic. The grimy factory stacks spewing smoke suggest otherwise. The basket and hat symbolize the hope that in Pittsburgh (or any other industrial city), the...
Eudora Welty’s “Asphodel” (1942)

Eudora Welty’s “Asphodel” (1942)

Momentary serenity and happiness are upended in Welty’s “Asphodel,” a humorous picnic story in which three old maids are frightened by the appearance of a naked man. Cora, Irene, and Phoebe plan a picnic at Asphodel, the former home of their recently...