From eating at graves to dining outdoors with Louis Vuitton utensils, picnicking has been a favorite pasttime all over the world for centuries. A Frankfurt exhibition traces the history of the picnic in art.
Image: Julian Gerchow
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The art of the picnic
From eating at graves to dining outdoors with Louis Vuitton untensils, picnicking has been a favorite pasttime all over the world for centuries. A Frankfurt exhibition traces the history of the picnic in art.
Image: Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main
The art of eating outdoors
With over 1,000 objects on display, the "Picnic Time" exhibition at the Frankfurt Musuem of Applied Art traces both the history of the picnic and the cultural variations of it throughout time. A famous Edouard Manet painting capturing a picnic in 19th-century France hangs at the opening. This painting by Heinrich Hasselhorst likewise shows the way high society saw outdoor eating as a social event.
Image: Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main
Picnicking in style
Utensils also play a big role in the exhibition, with an elaborately decorated Japanese lacquered picnic set from around 1800 shown alongside this 1910 Louis Vuitton case. Made especially for auto and motorcycle trips into nature, the case shows that picnicking was not to be taken lightly. From porcelain plates and silverware to champagne flutes, the utensils were nothing to toss away afterward.
Image: Louis Vuitton Collection, Paris
Picnic in Capetown
Over the last 40 years, Frankfurt-based photographer Barbara Klemm has snapped a lot of images of people picnicking around the world. Whether taken in Capetown (like here in 1978), China, Iran or Ukraine, the images have one thing in common: They capture the togetherness of a group of people eating out in the open. It's only when shown alongside each other that the differences become notable.
Image: Barbara Klemm
Picnic at the Henley Royal Regatta
Although eating outdoors was already a beloved pasttime across Europe, the French gave the phenomenon a name - "pique-nique" - in the Baroque period. The love affair has continued among high society, and was especially popular in 18th-century England. Members of the upper-class continue to picnic at events such as the Ascot horse races and Henley Royal Regatta, pictured here in 2016.
Image: Julian Gerchow
Picnicking at the grave
The Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos, is a major holiday in Mexico. Those who have died are celebrated by those they left behind. In the days-long festival, family members gather around a grave and feast, as in th 2012 painting by Felix Pestemer (pictured). It's not an entirely unique tradition; British nobility are said to have picnicked at the edges of battlefields since the Napoleonic wars.
Image: Felix Pestemer
Lunch on the grass, over the centuries
A meal on the grass has grown to be beloved by people worldwide. The Greeks enjoyed eating outdoors in nature, a trend that caught on in Britain by the late 18th century. An early contemporary work depicting the picnic is shown here - "Déjeuner sur l'herbe" (Lunch on the Grass) -, captured in this 2017 snapshot by street artists Gündem Gözpinar and Balázs Vesszösi: "Déjeuner sur l'herbe 2.0."
Image: Museum Angewandte Kunst
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It's unclear when the first picnic ever took place, but the trend of eating outdoors with friends and family has a long history. From the ancient Greeks to Victorian England up through even today, the picnic has served as a social gathering place.
While each country has its own unique picnicking traditions - think of the Mexican Day of the Dead festival, which has families eating at the graves of loved ones - the idea of a picnic seems to be known across many cultures.
In England, members of high society still step out to see and be seen on the lawn outside events like the Wimbledon tennis tournament or Ascot horse race. In Japan, families pack a picnic basket as they head out to the cherry blossom festival in spring.
Whetting appetites for outdoor eating
These outdoor scenes have been popular with painters like Edouard Manet and photographers like Barbara Klemm, who's documented picnics in countries around the world over the last 40 years.
A new exhibition at Frankurt's Museum of Applied Art takes a look at how these events are captured by the art world. Alongside these works of art are also the practical utensils involved: From a 1910 Louis Vuitton picnic case made to fit the trunk of a car to an 18th-century lacquered Japanese set on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, nearly 1,000 objects are on display.
For visitors to the exhibition, which runs from May 6 through September 17, there are also several special events on the program to get in the picnic spirit. From an intercultural cooking encounter on opening weekend to an opera perfomance at the nearby park, the museum allows visitors to become active participants in the picnic trend.
