Morland’s painting The Anglers’ Repast, aka A Luncheon Party, is a scene of outdoor amusement and leisure. (There was as yet not word to identify this as a picnic.) Though the popular title is The Anglers’ Repast, the presence of fishing gear — a creel and rod nestled on the bow of their boat is not an affectation and is shown in use in a companion painting, The Party Angling.
The picnickers are a quintet of Regency aristocrats enjoying themselves outdoors. Good humor is evident. Two women accompanied by three men have brought a picnic (unnamed, of course) to a grassy bank along a river or lake where an African in livery serves them.
They all come in a small boat (visible on the left), big enough to bring chairs for the ladies. The men will sit on the grass. It is all so sophisticated. One man sitting cuts the roast chicken; another shows a lady to her seat, a third takes gear and food from the servant, who is working his chores from the boat.
Morland’s The Labourers’ Luncheon contrasts a party of pleasure with working farmers nooning.
George Morland The Labourers Luncheon (1792)
*William Ward engraved it in 1789, and J. R. Smith, who later worked extensively with J.M.W. Turner, published it. Around 1800 an anonymous American painted a crude imitation now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it is titled The Picnic