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The Ham Dinner
- Localisation : The Gallery of Painting
- Année de création :1735
- Artiste :Nicolas de Lancret
Description
Known as a fête galante painter, a genre innovated by Watteau, Nicolas Lancret received this royal commission from Louis XV. It is a pendant to Jean-François de Troy’s The Oyster Dinner, and was painted for the dining room in the small suites, decorated for the King in Versailles. There is no fête galante in this painting, but a depiction of a meal after hunting, Louis XV’s great passion, in which Lancret specialised. Under the auspices of a satyr, the guests are enjoying a ham, accompanied by wine they have undoubtedly abundantly consumed given the empty bottles, broken plates and flushed faces. The delicate, rustic atmosphere created by the mossy green of the trees and the trellis kiosk, is troubled by the bold colours and the mocking attitudes of the guests. The Duke of Aumale acquired this painting and its pendant in 1857. They had belonged to his father, King Louis-Philippe, and had great sentimental value for the Duke.
