The Luncheon

The Luncheon (Le Déjeuner, Panneau décoratif) is a large oil-on-canvas painting by Claude Monet, dated about 1873, showing the end of a family meal in his garden at Argenteuil; it is in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris (RF 2774).

After 1870 Monet largely gave up the big formats of his early career, and the Orsay names this picture, 160 by 201 cm, as one of the few exceptions, alongside the decorative canvases he painted in 1876–1877 for Ernest Hoschedé's Château de Rottenbourg at Montgeron. The museum even suggests that seeing The Luncheon, in the studio or in exhibition, may have prompted Hoschedé to commission those panels. Unusually for Monet, the picture is thought to have been painted in the studio rather than outdoors, probably from charcoal sketches that are now lost.

The charm of the scene, as the Orsay puts it, lies in its sense of the instant: a family life glimpsed through the traces it leaves. The table has not been cleared, a hat hangs from a branch, a bag and a parasol lie forgotten on the bench, and in the cool shade Monet's young son Jean plays quietly with pieces of wood. Two women stroll in the background. Dabs and short strokes of red and green suggest bushes of fuchsias, geraniums and roses, flecked by early-afternoon sunlight falling through the trees. The museum compares the intimate subject with later work by Vuillard and Bonnard, and the close-up of the wicker side table cut off at mid-height with devices favoured by the Nabis.

Monet showed the painting at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876 under the title Decorative Panel. Gustave Caillebotte bought it from him on 10 March 1878 for 600 francs. It was accepted by the State in 1896 from Caillebotte's bequest, hung in the Musée du Luxembourg until 1929, then in the Louvre and from 1947 the Jeu de Paume, and was assigned to the Musée d'Orsay in 1986.