Situated on the bluff near St. Tropez overlooking the brilliant blue ocean, Bonnard’s picnic is one delightfully cheerful mood. Everything is gold, yellow, brown, and green around the woman, a man, a child, and a recumbent dog. It’s a palette suggesting happiness and...
The location of this early painting, The Picnic on the Grass, is unknown.
Smallwood’s picnic episode is not in Dumas, fils’s La Dame aux Camélias. According to Smallwood’s cinematic logic, however, romantic scenes in a natural setting are sure audience winners. The screen legend tells the obvious, “Love is the...
Jekyll’s recommendations for alfresco dining in “A Shooting-Party Luncheon” require forethought and preparation impractical for most of us. Her suggestions run low to high, from a wedge of cheese and a biscuit to a hotpot of game or poultry with celery, peeled...
Their marriage disintegrating, Leopold and Molly Bloom remember when they were in love and picnicked on Howth Head. They vividly remember Molly feeding Bloom a seedcake. (Joyce considered this sensual, but the visual image is of a bird feeding its young.) Bloom and...
Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” describes the Sheridan family’s Wellington, New Zealand, summer picnic garden party. The day is early summer, the weather ideal, the air warm and windless, and the blue sky has a veil of gold: “They could...
There is no picnic in von Arnim’s The Enchanted April. When the narrative ends, the four women vacationing at San Salvatore pack up and leave for London. But Mike Newell’s film ends with a picnic. For a discussion, see Picnicsonfilm.org. See Elizabeth von...
“Regard for Others” is Post’s picnic advice heading. It’s not what you might expect because it’s about trash! “People who picnic along the highway leaving a clutter of greasy paper and swill (not a pretty name,” Post sputters, “but it is not a pretty object! for...
Stein is a demanding writer, especially when she experimented with eliminating adjectives, imagery, and grammar. She argued that you either got her meaning or you didn’t. The results were hit or miss. They still are. Ben Hecht reviewing Geography and Plays...
Southworth’s The Motorist’s Luncheon Book hypes motor picnicking. “The love of the great outdoors grows with each new automobile,” she writes, “The friendly road beckons, the trusty motor champs at the brake.” It’s very like...
