20th century

Masterpiece of the museum’s collection, Chéret places this painting within the iconographic tradition of luncheons on the grass, forty years after the scandal caused by Édouard Manet’s eponymous work, preserved at the Musée d’Orsay. However, in this painting, there is no provocation from the artist, but a genuine reference to the French rococo painting and its atmosphere of gallant festivities, illustrated in the 18th century by artists like Fragonard, Boucher, and Watteau.

True to his luminous chromatic range and swirling treatment of space, the canvas is built around a dynamic where everything becomes candid joy of living and movement. It is worth noting that originally, this painting is a cartoon, that is, a preparatory work, for a tapestry commissioned by the industrialist and collector Maurice Fenaille. This was executed in his weaving workshop in Paris, directed by Ulysse Gauzy.

Symbolic of Mossa’s symbolist period, “She” emerges as the icon of the Femme fatale. A saintly figure gone astray, she is haloed with a Latin inscription by Juvenal (late 1st-early 2nd century): “This is my command, let my will take the place of reason,” a sacrilegious allusion to the Lord’s Prayer.

Resembling a diabolical doll exuding eroticism and death, she is crowned with birds of prey and human skulls and wears a funereal necklace composed of various weapons. In her provocative nudity, she dominates a mound of male corpses that she crushes with her fingers and flesh. The threatening sky exacerbates the drama of the scene.

Originally from Marseille, Camoin trained in the studio of the symbolist painter Gustave Moreau, alongside Henri Matisse, Henri Manguin, and Albert Marquet. He joined them in the fauvist adventure as early as 1903. Executed in Saint-Tropez, where he settled after World War I, this work pays homage to the Mediterranean luminosity through an exaltation of color: the contrast of red tiles with the blue-green landscape, a dress adorned with vibrant red and green floral motifs against a white background.

The model, named Nicole, is the daughter of the Serbian painter Marko Čelebonović. Barefoot, with a tanned complexion, comfortably seated facing the sea, she embodies the new population that settled on the shores of the Mediterranean from the 19th century onwards to enjoy the mild climate and, for artists, its incomparable light.

Raoul Dufy contributes to the renewal of fashion and decorative arts through the creation of textiles for clothing and furnishings. He works both for haute couture and for industrial fabric production.

Flowers emerge as emblems of his printed work and give him the freedom to repeat patterns, such as these chrysanthemums arranged in a staggered pattern. The yellow, fuchsia pink, gray, and green of these flowers come alive against a sumptuous black background, giving the illusion of a fireworks display.