Picasso - Luncheon on the Grass

Pablo Picasso, (1881-1973), was a Spanish painter, draftsman and sculptor who spent most of his life in France. This Luncheon on the Grass is after Manet. It is not a copy but one of his many free studies! The adaptation of key works from the past, the dialogue with the old masters, allows Picasso to transpose a known subject, with a new way of painting. This work, white lines on a black background, takes up, in fact, Manet's painting, but in a very stylized, linear way.

There is no flat tint, only drawn shapes, sometimes hatched. He has represented the essential part of the master's painting: two women, one coming out of the water and the other in conversation with the man with the cane, in the foreground, the second man being on the far left.

The profusion of white lines seems to give this painting a lively atmosphere, the four aligned heads almost forming a frieze.

Lunch on the Grass, 1960

© Picasso Administration