Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Monet, Moscow)

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe was first exhibited in Louis Latouche's art gallery and for a time was in the collection of the opera singer Jean-Baptiste Faure. It was exhibited at the 1900 exhibition of Monet's works at the Durand-Ruel gallery[1] and Alexandre Benois described it as "perhaps Monet's most brilliant work" and "one of the most beautiful [works] of the entire 20th century" on seeing it at the Exposition Universelle[2]. Sergei Shchukin bought the painting from Monet himself in November 1904 for 30,000 francs via the art dealer Paul Cassirer, the thirteenth Monet work he acquired. His collection was seized by the Soviet state in May 1918, with Le Déjeuner initially going to the State Museum of New Western Art and then from 1948 in its present home.