Édouard Manet, French
“Just To Clarify, Russ. Yesterday I Asked If Your Wife Was Cool With Eating TAPAS For Lunch, Not Topless. But This Works For Me,” 1863
Oil on canvas
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/// Manet’s painting, “Luncheon on the Grass,”
was a shock to the French middle class.
Not the the bare girl they eyed;
what her bareness implied.
Classic nudes are OK— this was crass.
/// The naked girl stares straight at us,
and her “insolence” kicked up a fuss.
Others with nothing on
were picked for the Salon,
but this “reject” caused critics to cuss.
/// Displayed in a “Show of the Rejected,”
it was carefully scanned and inspected.
Viewers lined up to rate
this work they “loved to hate.”
Could this fuss be what Manet expected?
/// Painting nudes of a far distant time,
or girls bathing, were seen as sublime.
But their modern undress,
(next to clothed men, no less),
was distasteful and nearly a crime.
/// Clothed and naked pairs thus juxtaposed,
told a story, and what it disclosed
was that two men in suits
hired two prostitutes,
and such “sinfulness” must be opposed.
/// What would cause these two ladies to strip
and then casually go take a dip?
An apt diagnosis—
they are under hypnosis,
and believe they’re alone on this trip.
> or <
/// We took clothes off and no one could stop us.
(Though we risked having lunch guests atop us.)
That cafe down the street
sold us “all we can eat.”
They’re the home of the Bottomless Tapas.
> or <
/// “Due to lunch plans here with you, vicomte,
and these ladies, I just didn’t want
to eat too much today
for petit déjeuner,
so I just had a half a croissant.”