Picnic on the banks of the Manzanares

Young Madrid men share bread, wine and laughter by the river while an orange seller catches their eye. Goya painted it as a design for a royal tapestry, and then it vanished for nearly a century.

The story behind the painting

Goya painted this picture in 1776 as part of his second series of tapestry cartoons, full-size designs for tapestries meant for the dining room of the Prince of Asturias, the future Charles IV, and his wife Maria Luisa of Parma, at the El Pardo palace. It was delivered to the Royal Tapestry Factory on 30 October 1776. The scene was inspired by a short comic play of the same name by Ramón de la Cruz.

What to look for

The setting is a popular spot on the bank of the Manzanares in Madrid; in the background, half hidden by bushes, stands the hermitage of the Virgin of the Port. Goya paid close attention to real-looking people and to objects, clothes and bottles, as the historian Aureliano de Beruete y Moret noted, and to the cheerful faces of the majos, bright in colour, merry and free. At times the colour seems to recede, and Goya softens some elements to heighten his effects.

Meaning and intent

The flirtation between the orange seller and the majos stands out among the themes the princess requested. The nobility, Maria Luisa above all, liked to resemble the common people and asked for popular scenes of Madrid, and these themes run through the whole series. At the time Goya was influenced by his brother-in-law Francisco Bayeu and by Agustín Esteve. The scene still carries the marks of Goya's youth, and the second series as a whole evokes country themes in about ten cartoons.

Legacy

The canvas was thought lost until Gregorio Cruzada Villaamil found it in the basement of the Royal Palace of Madrid in 1869. By orders of January and February 1870 it was handed to the Prado, which first listed it in its catalogue in 1876, and it hangs today in room 85. The work is also known simply as La Merienda, The Picnic. Its series companions include Dance on the Banks of the Manzanares, The Parasol, The Kite and The Card Players.