Manet was by the Seine near Argenteuil one day with his good friend Antonin Proust, and he saw some naked ladies bathing. He said to Proust, “It seems I must do a nude. All right, I’ll do one for them… in the transparent air, with people like those we can see over there. They’ll slay me for it, but let them say what they like.”

And so, in 1863, he painted “Le Dejeuner sur L’herbe”. This painting shows two fully clothed men sitting with a naked woman on a blanket, next to an open luncheon basket. “Le Dejeuner sur L’herbe” means “Luncheon on the Grass”. Another woman is bent in a meadow in the background, and, behind her, a small boat resting on the grassy shore. The painting is done in dark shades, the forest is dark green and brown, the men in black and grey suits, and this accentuates the woman’s pale naked body. She is looking straight out at the observer, with no expression on her face. One of the men is leaning back, relaxed, in the grass, and has his hand outstretched in a gesture that suggests he is in conversation with his companions. The men look neither excited nor displeased to have the woman with them. The painting has a hazy, almost out-of-focus style. The complexions of the people are greenish and the way they are painted is realistic, with folds in the cloth, detail of features, and perspective. Unlike the early paintings, before the Renaissance, we see interaction and movement, much closer to a photograph. Things are not perfect; the lunch basket is spilled, the entire set-up is unbalanced, giving it a more interesting, intriguing sense. The mood is easy, peaceful and relaxed; it is not dramatic or tense. The painting does not depict a realistic situation; it is closer to a male fantasy.

The painting was met with rejection and criticism, which greatly distressed Manet. The reason for the disputes and controversy surrounding the painting was that the naked woman in the painting was not a goddess or a holy figure; she was a common Parisian woman (Manet’s favorite model, Victorine Meurend) and this had never been done before Manet. Women found it offensive, and critics accused it of being “anti-academic” and “politically suspect”. The two men in the painting are Manet’s brother-in-law, Ferdinand Leenhoff, and Manet’s younger brother, Eugene.

What was the reason for the painting? What was Manet’s purpose? Manet made it clear that he did not care what people said, he intended to paint a nude and paint a nude he did. But then, when the Salon in France rejected it, he was upset. Though he can’t have been too upset, because in that same year he painted “Olympia” which also shows a naked woman lying on a bed. Also, later, in 1878, he painted “Woman in Bathtub” which depicts a naked woman’s backside.

Perhaps the painting was simply for Manet’s own pleasure, and that of thousands of other men. It was a fantasy that possibly many of them secretly harbored. Until that time it was unheard of. The naked woman in that picture was a revolution in itself, and it broke out of the proper traditional method of painting. Le Dejeuner sur L’herbe inspired Claude Monet to paint a similar picture, another “Luncheon on the Grass” in 1865.