Serving up a smaller ‘Luncheon’

In 1863, Edouard Manet shocked his Parisian audience by painting a naked woman boldly staring out of a picture while sitting on the grass with fully clothed men. The provocative subject matter and loose brushwork were far too modern for the conservative tastes of the time. “Luncheon on the Grass” was refused by jurors of the Paris Salon and shown instead at the Salon des Refuses, but the risque picnic scene has since become an icon of modern art, proudly exhibited in the French capital’s Musee d’Orsay.

Now the painting is causing a stir again -- at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Savvy visitors who wander into the Impressionist gallery do double takes as they come face to face with the famous image. But its modest size -- about 35 inches by 46 inches -- tells them that the Getty didn’t make off with the much larger D’Orsay picture. The smaller version, probably painted a few years after the big one, is on loan through September from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

The loan grew out of a financial, educational and artistic alliance formed in 2001 when the Courtauld established its independence from the University of London. The partnership required the Getty Trust to give the Courtauld $10 million to carry out its programs and provided for collaborative conservation projects and periodic loans of artworks. The Getty borrowed the Manet to complement Impressionist paintings in its collection, including the artist’s Parisian street scene “Rue Mosnier” and Edgar Degas’ female nude “After the Bath.”