Claude Monet “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe” (1865-6) at the Musée d’Orsay. Monet’s wonderful painting of a picnic was inspired by Édouard Manet’s notorious painting by the same name completed in 1862-3. The spectator’s eye zeroes in on the female nude at the heart of Manet’s painting, but in Monet’s interpretation the eye is drawn to the food. The painting really made me feel invited and welcome to this wonderful lunch. I wished I could accept the offer made by the woman in the foreground to a piece of meat pie and a glass of wine.
