Interpretive Dimensions of Recontextualization: Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass

Abstract

This article offers a reinterpretation of Edouard Manet’s painting Luncheon on the Grass as an example of recontextualization and the gendered consequences that arise from it. The focus is on attempts to confine the provocative content of the painting to the 19th-century cultural context and its limitations, particularly regarding women's existence, from which contemporary society would be liberated. In contrast, it is argued that the image's provocative nature remains relevant. It also raises questions about the ethical dimension of the work itself and the cost of identifying its female figure with a real person.