Déjeuner sur l’herbe à Valencia. 2025

Reinterpretation of the work Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1863), by Édouard Manet. 185 x 170 cm. Oil and acrylic on linen.

• "Luncheon on the Grass" by Édouard Manet is an analysis of modern art that challenges academic conventions by realistically depicting a modern, nude woman. Manet submitted the work to the Paris Salon of 1863, but it was rejected for defying artistic norms and the expectation that artworks should depict historical or mythological scenes.

  The main source of controversy was the presence of a nude woman in a modern, everyday setting—a practice that was not tolerated in academic art. This nudity was a taboo subject, considered inappropriate for painting.

  Some studies suggest that the work represents the prostitution that was prevalent in Paris at the time, or the woman's submissive position in relation to men.

  Although the composition can be seen as a reference to classical works such as Titian’s Pastoral Concert, Manet reinvents it by presenting a group of modern Parisians, marking a break between the past and the present.

  By presenting a common subject like a picnic on a large-scale canvas, Manet validated the mundane and opened the door for other Impressionist artists to explore similar themes.

Visitors at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris view Manet’s “Déjeuner sur l’Herbe.” Parisians first encountered the painting around the time it was notoriously rejected from the annual Salon in 1863. Credit: Benoit Tessier/Reuters.

In Déjeuner sur l’herbe à Valencia (2025), the canvas breathes life into a scene set in a Valencian garden, where the morning light emerges from a sleepless night. The hours stretched on, as music and laughter gave way to wandering streets, intimate conversations, and the soft arrival of dawn.

Two women, perhaps artists or designers, or maybe the bold CEOs of a nascent startup, converse at ease beside a young man, his nakedness as natural as the city around them. They might be in El Parque de Cabecera, or perhaps Parque Central, after the last whispers of a Ruzafa bar had faded and they’d grabbed litronas from a corner shop. Or they could be wandering the old Turia riverbed, heading toward the beach where the sunrise in El Cabañal ignites the sky in colors too vivid for words.