The epitome of a Victorian picnic is Tissot’s Holyday.
Tissot arranged a picnic of a family and friends in the garden of his home in St. John Woods. They sit beside a sparkling white cloth, china, flatware, a cake, sliced cheese on a platter, a platter of grapes, tea, and fizzy water. The picnickers are at that dreamy end stage of a picnic when all are sated, and there is still dessert. The cloth is filled with china, flatware, a cake, sliced cheese on a platter, a platter of grapes, tea served from a silver carafe, and bottles of fizz.
When Oscar Wilde, then twenty-three years old, reviewed the painting in 1877, he complained that Tissot’s picnickers were over-dressed and common looking and were seated beside an “ugly, painfully accurate representation of modern soda-water bottles!” The woman holding the teacup and staring off into space may be Kathleen Newton, his mistress and favorite model. Holyday is an ambiguous title, perhaps a pun on holy and holiday.
*The men are wearing cricket team caps, a very fashionable conceit.
Featured Image: James [Jacques] Tissot. Holyday [The Picnic] (1876c.), Oil on canvas. Tate Britain, London