Lunch in the Studio Victor Julien Giraud

Born into a family of painters, the promising young artist Victor Giraud was killed during the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War. Despite his tragically early death, his few remaining paintings leave no doubt as to his innate talent and artistic ambition.
In this life-sized work, known for many years as The Bohemians, he depicts a lively company of men and women at table, abandoning themselves to the pleasures of food and love. When Victor Giraud showed the composition in 1864, at just twenty-four years of age, it was only the second occasion on which his work had been exhibited in the Salon. The painting attracted attention, its libertinism even causing a minor scandal: according to contemporary critics, the permissive behaviour of the flirtatious young crowd – especially that of the drinking, smoking coquettish woman – was an unworthy subject for such a large-scale, ambitious work of art. Several critics, however, praised the artist’s confident, unfettered brushwork and vibrant colours, as well as the accurately observed details of the studio and of the subjects’ poses and clothing. This is Giraud’s most intimate and personal composition, a celebration of his own circle of friends and fellow artists, and a tribute to the pleasures of youth.

Anna Zsófia Kovács