James Jacques Joseph Tissot’s La Partie carrée, aka The Foursome, is more sexually suggestive than the English title indicates.
The French title Partie Carrée suggests a sexual tryst and alludes to Édouard Manet’s The Luncheon on the Grass (1863). The couples are flirting, and Tissot has included appropriate gestures and symbols: the man in red places his hand over the woman in black’s shoulder and next to her bosom on which she has pinned a pink. The woman in gold is drinking with gusto, and her partner has his jacket off. She has her shoes off, and there is a glimpse of her bluestocking. Parasols, fans, flowers, and handkerchiefs are coded symbols of flirting and sexual intimacy.
The picnic menu is roast chicken, cheese, bread, cake, and wine.
Featured Image: Partie Carrée aka The Foursome () (1870), oil on canvas. Private Collection. Partie Carrée, 1870. Oil on canvas