The Luncheon is an 1868 genre painting by leading French Impressionist artist Claude Monet.
Painted relatively early in his career at the age of 28, this was before his shift to the concerns of Impressionism of the 1870s. This image, therefore, can be said to be more Realist in character with more precise depictions of the faces of these upper-class women, the serving maid that is opening the door, and the cheerful child holding the spoon.
As well as this precision, there is a mood of informality as shown in the carefree arrangement of the chairs, the woman leaning against the window, and the loaf of bread that teeters on the edge of the table. Monet would soon develop this informality of representation into a new Impressionistic way of seeing.
Claude Monet’s The Luncheon is in the Stadel Museum in Frankfurt, in Central Germany.