French artist Alain Jacquet found early fame as a member of the American Pop art movement. Utilizing Ben Day dots to generate his compositions, he has described himself as “fascinated by the way a picture can break down into the tiniest abstract elements close up, then reappear as a pictorial image.” His most famous image, Déjeuner sur l’herbe from 1964, re-processes the classic Manet painting through a Mec Art (Mechanical Art) filter. Jacquet's models are easily identified as his friends: the woman in the foreground is the gallerist Jeannine de Goldschmidt and to the far right her husband, the art critic Pierre Restany who flanks the Italian artist Mario Schifano in the center. The bather in the background is Jeannine's sister and Pierre's sister-in-law Jacqueline Lafon.
Acquired directly from the artist in 1987
São Paolo, French Pavillion, IX Bienal de São Paolo, 1967, p. 73 (another variant exhibited and illustrated, titled as Almôço Sôbre a Grama)
Musée d'Arte Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Passions Privées, December 1995 - March 1996, no. 11, p. 458 (another variant exhibited and illustrated)
Paris, Galerie Beaubourg, Alain Jacquet, Le Déjeuner Sur L'Herbe 1964-1989 25ème Anniversaire, March 4 - April 8, 1989, pp. 26-27 (another variant exhibited and illustrated, cover)
Châteauroux, Couvent des Cordeliers, Alain Jacquet, Camouflages 1961-1964, March 19 - June 15, 2002, pp. 98-99 (another variant exhibited and illustrated)
Nice, Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Alain Jacquet: Camouflages et Trames, January 29 - May 22, 2005, pp. 85-87 (another variant exhibited and illustrated, dated as 1967)
New Haven, Yale School of Art, 32 Edgewood Gallery, Lunch with Olympia, September 20 - November 21, 2013 (another variant exhibited)
Robert Maillard, ed., Vingt-cinq ans d'art en France, Paris, 1986, p. 118 (another variant illustrated)
Duncan Smith, Alain Jacquet, Paris, 1990, p. 5, p. 32 (another variant illustrated)
Marco Livingstone, Pop Art, London, 1990, no. 202, p. 145 (another variant illustrated)
Art Press, vol. 146, April 1990 (another variant illustrated, cover)
