Bathing Beauties by Stanley Spencer 1891-1959

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) Girls Returning from a Bathe 1936

"Everything has a sort of double meaning for me, there's the ordinary everyday meaning of things, and the imaginary meaning about it all, and I wanted to bring these things together...I have always looked forward to seeing what I could fish out of myself, I am a treasure island seeker and the island is myself."  Stanley Spencer

Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891-1959) The Bathing Pool, Dogs 1940

Bathing by Camille Pissarro 1830-1903

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Bather

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Bathers

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Bathers by the side of the river

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Bathers on the Bank of a River

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Bathers

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Bathing Goose Maidens

Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Group of Bathers

Reading Outdoors by Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919

 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919)   The Reader

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919)  Madame Chocquet Reading 1876

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919)  Two Girls Reading

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919) Gabrielle Renard (1878-1959) and Jean

Reading Outdoors - My Favorite European Reading Portrait by Armand Guillaumin 1841-1927

1882 Armand Guillaumin (French Impressionist painter, 1841-1927) The Future Madame Guilaumin Reading

A Book to Read Outdoors

Embroidered satin book with floral motif. The Whole Booke of Psalmes (London, 1639), The British Library Database of Bookbindings.
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Dogs & Cats in American Folk Art - Robert Peckham 1785-1877

Deacon Robert Peckham (American, 1785-1877). Portrait of a Young Child in a White Dress and Red Shoes with Peach and Dog. C. 1830

17C Love on Horseback

Gonzales Coques (Flemish artist, 1614-1684) A Couple on Horseback ,1640-50

Aelbert Cuyp (Dutch artist, 1620-91) Lady & Gentleman on Horseback 1650s

Gonzales Coques (Flemish artist, 1614-1684) Couple on Horseback 1640-50

The earliest Picnics occured after the Hunt in the 18C

Food historians tell us picnics evolved from the elaborate traditions of outdoor feasts enjoyed by the wealthy. Medieval hunting feasts & Renaissance-era country banquets probably were the earliest picnics.

1737 Carle or Charles-André van Loo (1705-1765) After the Hunt

"Picnic. Originally, A fashionable social entertainment in which each person present contributed a share of the provisions." The OED traces the oldest print evidence of the word picnic in the English language to 1748. The word was known in France, Germany, and Sweden prior to becoming an English institution. 
---Oxford English Dictionary [Clarendon Press:Oxford], 2nd edition, Volume XI (p. 779)

1738 Carle or Charles-André van Loo (1705-1765) The Picnic after the Hunt

"The earliest picnics in England were medieval hunting feasts. Hunting conventions were established in the 14C, and the feast before the chase assumed a special importance. Gaston de Foiz, in a work entitled Le Livre de chasse (1387), gives a detailed description of such an event in France. As social habits in 14C England were similar to those in medieval France, it is safe to assume that picnics were more or less the same."  
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 602)

 1737 Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743)  The Hunting Party Meal

"The French might have invented the word "picnic," pique nique being found earlier than "pic nic." It originally referred to a dinner, usually eaten indoors, to which everyone present had contributed some food, and possible also a fee to attend. The ancient Greek "eranos," the French "moungetade" described earlier, or modern "pot luck" suppers are versions of this type of mealtime organization. ...Picnics derive, also, from the decorous yet comparatively informal 16C "banquets"...whichh frequently took place out of doors."
---The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolutions, Eccentricities and Meaning of Table Manners, Margaret Visser [Penguin:New York] 1991 (p. 150-1)

1740 Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743) Picnic after the hunt

"Picnic. An informal meal in which everyone pays his share or brings his own dish,' according to the Littre dictionary. That was probably the original meaning of the word, which is probably of French origin (the French piquer means to pick at food; nique means something small of no value.) The word was accepted by the Academie francaise in 1740 and thereafter became a universally accepted word in many languages. From the informal picnic, the outdoor feast developed...Weekend shooting parties and sporting events were occasions for grand picnics, with extensive menus and elaborate presentation."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely updated and revised edition [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 883)

Bastille Day 1890 by van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch artist, 1853-1890) is Auvers Town Hall 14 July 1890

"Women Artist" Painting Flowers as Symbols - Clara Peeters 1594-1657

Clara Peeters (Flemish painter, 1594-c 1657)

Clara Peeters (1594-c 1657) was not painting portraits as were most women painters born in the 1400-1500s.  Peeters is the best-known female Flemish artist of this era and one of the few women artists working professionally in 17C Europe, despite restrictions on women's access to artistic training and membership in guilds. Peeters was among the earliest specialist painters of still lifes and flowers, working while this genre was still emerging. Fewer than ten paintings of flowers produced in the Netherlands can be dated before 1608, when she painted her first recorded work.

Clara Peeters (Flemish painter, 1594-c 1657)

She was baptized in Antwerp in 1594, & married there in 1639. Her earliest dated paintings, from 1607-1608, are small, detailed images representing food & drink. At the time that Clara Peeters was painting, religious imagery was forbidden in the Dutch Reformed Protestant Church.  Artistic symbols  were developed to make coded references to life, death, & religion, so her paintings conveyed a meaning to her patrons of much more than objects in a still life. Each painting would be a visual puzzle to be decoded by the viewer.  

Clara Peeters (Flemish painter, 1594-c 1657)

Some speculate that the skill with which this teenage artist executed her painting suggests that she may have been trained by a master painter. Although there is no documentary evidence of her education, some scholars theorize that Peeters may have been a student of Osias Beert, a still-life painter from Antwerp.  By 1612, the 18-year-old artist was producing large numbers of painstakingly rendered still lifes displaying symbols in groupings of metal goblets, gold coins, & exotic flowers.

Clara Peeters (Flemish painter, 1594-c 1657)

Clara Peeters (Flemish painter, 1594-c 1657)

1935 Picnic in California

1935 Picnic in California

1910-1925 American Picnic

1910-1925 American Picnic. Photo by John Johnson. Johnson was born in Lincoln in 1879 to Harrison Johnson, an escaped slave and Civil War veteran, & his wife, Margaret. After graduating from high school & briefly attending the University of Nebraska (where he played football), Johnson found work in one of the few realms open to African-Americans at the time: manual labor. He was a janitor & a drayman, but also a very prolific & talented community photographer. From roughly 1910 to 1925, he took as many as 500 photographs using a bulky view camera and flash powder.

1920 Picnic in North Carolina

1920 Picnic in North Carolina

1915 Picnic in Seattle, Washington

1915 Picnic in driftwood at beach below Magnolia Bluff, Seattle, Washington

1894 Maine Picnic

1894 An outing in the Maine woods