The frugal meal

Lot n° 136
29,5cmx37,5cm

EXHIBITED

Musée de Nancy, 1894 ;
Salon de la société nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1894, n°476 ;
Salon de Nancy, Nancy, 31st October - 2 December 1894 ;
Salon de la Société des Amis des Arts, Nantes, 1st February -1st March 1895, n°151 ;
Salon de la société Lorraine des Amis des Arts, Nancy, 1909, n°8 ;
Rétrospective des meilleures oeuvres d'artistes lorrains récompensés aux Salons parisiens, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Nancy, 1909 ;
Les Pompiers, 1ère exposition, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1912, n°30 ;
Probably, Exposicion de pintura francesa contemporanea

LITERATURE

Maurice Garçot, "Emile Friant", in Revue Lorraine Illustrée, Nancy, Imprimeries Réunies, 1931, mentionned p. 76 ;
Arsène Alexandre, Emile Friant et son oeuvre, Nancy, 1946, described p.19-20, illustrated pl.VII ;
Henri Claude, Friant, Vaux, 2005, illustrated p.104 and a detail p.105 ;
Exhibition catalogue, A l'épreuve du réel, Les peintres et la photographie au XIXe siècle, Musée Gustave Courbet, Ornans, 30 June - 1st October 2012, illustrated p. 131

CATALOGUE NOTE

In the 1880's and 1890's, Friant depicts genre scenes showing the lifestyle of humble people in a naturalist fashion. Jules Rais rightly notes in La Lorraine artiste of 18 November 1894: "Above all Mr Friant appreciates the humble."
Emile Friant knows well the family portrayed here : Eugénie Ledergerber's, his life-long partner, is shown in the foreground wearing a red blouse with her younger sister, Jeanne, sitting in the background. Exhibited three times in 1894, this small-scale painting received positive criticism for the humanity it depicts. With this subject matter, Friant works in the wake of the Le Nain brothers'