All was rated by highly scientific baguette emoji system.
As spring turns to summer, one can’t help but long for a good old-fashioned picnic. And by old-fashioned, we mean really old-fashioned—the picnic has been a perennial favorite for over 500 years.
While dining outdoors has (of course) been happening forever, the outdoor repast as an escape into nature dates back to the medieval era. Following hunting expeditions, the wealthy would enjoy outdoor feasts accompanied by heavy furniture, crystal glasses, and all manner of accoutrements carried by servants
The meaning of the word “picnic,” too, has shifted over time. It first surfaced in 18th-century France, and originally meant something more akin to a potluck. In the 19th century, the word gained the outdoor connotations we’re familiar with today.
The idyllic outdoor repast has been a favorite subject of painters for about as long as it’s existed.
With Memorial Day marking the start of summer in the U.S., we decided to pull together some of art history’s most memorable picnics and rank them based on fashions, food, weather, and general vibes.
Detail of Thomas Cole’s A Pic-nic Party (1846). Collection of the Brooklyn Museum.
Édouard Manet, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863). Collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Florine Stettheimer, Picnic at Bedford Hills (1918). Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
Giovanni Bellini, Feast of the Gods (1514). Collection of the National Gallery of Art.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sunday the Banks of the Marne, Paris, (1936–38). Courtesy of Fondation Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos/Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
Giovanni Bellini, Feast of the Gods (1514). Collection of the National Gallery of Art.
Katsukawa Shunchō, A Picnic Party at Hagidera. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters (1565). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The French edition of The Hunting Book of Gaston Phebus, 15th century. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Archibald J. Motley Jr., The Picnic, 1936. Collection of the Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.