(Neuilly-sur-Seine 1939–2008 New York City)
Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (dyptich), 1964, signed Alain Jacquet on the stretchers and inscribed with the catalogue no. AJ-DEJ/T-64–25 on two labels on the reverse of the right and left canvases, cellulosic four-colour process printing on canvas, in two parts, overall: 175 x 196 cm, on stretcher

Unique work which is part of a series of 95 variations around the same theme.

The authenticity of this work was confirmed by Mr. Fabien Jacquet.

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by Fabien Jacquet from the Comité Alain Jacquet, Cerdon, under no. AJ-DEJ/T-64–25.

Photo certificate:
Comité Alain Jacquet, Paris, March 2018, cat. no. AJ-DEJ/T64–25.

Provenance:
Private Collection, Austria – acquired in the1960s

Exhibited:
Sao Paolo, French Pavillion, IX Bienal de Sao Paolo, 1967, page 73 (another variant exh. and ill.)
Paris, Galerie Beaubourg, Marianne et Pierre Nahon, Alain Jacquet, 25ième anniversaire du Déjeuner sur l’herbe, 1989, (another variant exh. and ill. on the cover and pp. 26–27)
Paris, Galerie Jousse-Seguin, Alain Jacquet, 10 September - 19 October 1991, page 2 (another variant exh. and ill.)
Musée d’Arte Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Passions Privées, December 1995 - March 1996, no. 11, page 458 (another variant exh. and ill.)
Amiens, Musée de Picardie, Alain Jacquet, Œuvres de 1951 à 1998, 1998, page 35 (another variant exh. and ill.)
Châteauroux, Couvent des Cordeliers, Alain Jacquet, Camouflages 1961 – 1964, 19 March - 15 June 2002, pp. 98–99 (another variant exh. and ill.)
Nice, Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Alain Jacquet: Camouflages et Trames, 29 January - 22 May 2005, pp. 85–87 (another variant exh. and ill.)
New Haven, Yale School of Art, 32 Edgewood Gallery, Lunch with Olympia, 20 September - 21 November 2013 (another variant exh.)

Literature:
Robert Maillard, ed. Vingt-cinq ans d’art en France, Paris, 1986, page 118 (another variant ill.)
Duncan Smith, Alain Jacquet, Paris, 1990, page 5, page 32 (another variant ill.)
Marco Livingston, Pop Art: A Continuing History, London 1990, page 145, n°202, (another variant ill.)

We are grateful to Mr. Fabien Jacquet for his help in cataloguing this work.

Jacquet executed Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe in 1964. In this seminal work he laid the foundation of a large part of his subsequent artistic development. Jacquet transforms the original photographic snapshot by enlarging the texture to the point of deforming it, letting the grains of the photograph become visible in the foreground. The dots thus magnified both create and conceal the image. Coming in contact with the 1960s’ new artistic movements, Jacquet had affinities not only to the French Nouveau Réalisme, but also the Pop Art movements in the UK and US all while remaining detached enough to maintain the independent status of his own work. While Jacquet’s contemporaries in America welcomed the allure of a charmed lifestyle, his earlier paintings offer more of a political commentary on rigid gender systems and the grip of capitalism.
Pointedly alluding to the masterpiece Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, which Manet painted in 1862-63, Jacquet generates a fusion of close to a century of art history. With a similar pioneering modernism as established by its quintessence, Jacquet’s understanding of the topic is a scholar’s nod to the accomplishments signaling the emancipation of the creativity of expression ever since the Salon Des Refusés. Thus, this piece stands at the centre of a groundbreaking discourse that differentiated the Pop Art of Europe from the Pop Art of America. Given the tremendously significant motivation that inspired Jacquet’s painting, one must take a moment to mention the famous piece that was initially rebuffed, yet can now be found as a lasting fixture in Paris, at the Musée d‘Orsay. Most scandalous upon its first presentation is Manet’s portrayal of a pair of men in a park, having their lunch. Beside them, yet captivatingly disconnected from the others, sits a nude woman, directing her gaze at the painting’s viewer. As if to highlight the distinction between the pale skin of the woman and the stylishly clothed men, another figure is visible among the trees: a bathing woman, hardly clothed. Much like Manet, who alludes to the identities of the models in his works, and thus portraying his own existence rather than the subjects of allegories, it is clear that the sitters are friends of the artist. Namely, the nude woman is Jeannine de Goldschmidt, a gallerist. She is seated beside Mario Schifano, an Italian artist. The second man is her husband, Pierre Restany, an art critic. The woman bathing behind the group is Jacqueline Lafon, sister in law of the married couple. A divergence is visible, however, in the water: whereas Manet’s depiction is purely natural, Jacquet opts for a pool rather than a brook. This results in a capitalist middle-class portrayal of familial comforts.