Carl Larsson’s Breakfast in the Open (1910)

Carl Larsson’s Breakfast in the Open (1910)

Larsson’s outdoor breakfast is among his favorites. It’s set in a birch grove away from the family house.. Food is packed in a big hamper by a servant. The table, covered with a white cloth, has wooden chairs. In the center foreground is a man playing a...
Eudora Welty’s Delta Wedding (1946)

Eudora Welty’s Delta Wedding (1946)

Under a magical starry sky, Welty’s picnic at the Grove calms the frayed edges of family life after a momentous wedding. Though it is held at night, the air is cool and still summery warm, the stars twinkles as shooting stars burst across the sky, and the sound...
A.A. Milne”s  Winnie-the-Pooh (1926)

A.A. Milne”s Winnie-the-Pooh (1926)

Milne’s picnics Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) are happy leisurely events held in “a “Nice Place for Piknicks” in the area in “The Hundred Aker Wood.” It’s a location just above the “Sandy Pit where Roo Plays.” No doubt,...
Eleanor Roosevelt on Campobello Island (1931)

Eleanor Roosevelt on Campobello Island (1931)

During the first summer of FDR’s presidency, the Roosevelts hosted a Fourth of July picnic at their vacation home on Campobello Island, New Brunswick [about a half mile off the coast of Lubec, Maine]. Formality ruled, and men and women dressed in a causal style,...
J.V. Davidson-Houston’s “Siberian Picnic” (1939)

J.V. Davidson-Houston’s “Siberian Picnic” (1939)

In August 1939, Russia and Germany signed a non-aggression pact. The following October, Major Davidson-Houston was spying for the British Army, and “Siberian Picnic” is his public account of his 5,772-mile Trans-Siberian “Hard Class” train ride...
John Galsworthy’s “The Apple Tree” (1916)

John Galsworthy’s “The Apple Tree” (1916)

Galsworthy’s is a moral tale about the “deeply buried” guilt. What is supposed to be a romantic picnic celebrating a silver anniversary turns achingly poignant. Ashurst’s past is vividly recalled when inadvertently picnicking with his wife, Stella,...

Harry Hoffman’s Harvest Moon Walk (1912c.)

Hoffman’s Harvest Moon Walk is a masquerade picnic where revelers dress as vegetables. According to the Griswold Museum, “Hoffman’s eccentric depiction of strangely clad figures captures one of the Lyme Art Colony’s most festive rituals. On an...