Picnics were the very epitome of innocent pastoral delight, but allow
Alexander Lee to give us the history of this form of fun. Then I will add my own histories.
The
French root of picnic may derive from piquer/to peck and nique/small amount. The word first appeared in 1649, a burlesque satire on Fronde hypocrisy, an insurrection challenging French absolutism. Ironically the main character, Pique-Nique, was a guzzling millitary hero.
In any case, it caught the imagination of Paris’ beau monde and soon lost any pejorative associations. As
Gilles Ménage’s Dictionnaire (1694) showed, a pique-nique had become a fashionable dinner, to which each guest contributed.
Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe,
Édouard Manet, 1863
Pushkin Museum, Moscow.
Picnics really started to come into their own during the C18th. A favourite pastime of the
aristocracy, they were indoor affairs, held at home or in hired rooms. They were contrasted with the elaborate fêtes champêtres depicted by
Antoine Watteau etc. Attendees could either bring a dish or drink, OR pay a share of the cost.
Like cultural salons, picnics were linked to intellectual refinement. Typical was
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who, while rewriting the first act of Les Muses galantes in Paris, would often dine with the
Abbé de Condillac ‘tête à tête en pique-nique’. At larger gatherings, there was also
music or a dance, just like a party.
The
French Revolution changed everything. Many aristocrats fled abroad to Austria, Prussia or America; but more chose Britain. Settling primarily in London without much money, they did their best to maintain their old lifestyle. But in London, the picnic became more raucous, thanks to a group of 200 wealthy young Francophiles, who founded the
Pic Nic Society in late 1801. Held in hired rooms in
Tottenham St, their gatherings were extravagant. Every member was required to bring a dish and six bottles of wine, and each strove to outdo the others in luxury. After dinner there was singing, dancing and gambling; but the key entertainment was always an
amateur play.
Before long journalist-politician
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) , owner of
Drury Lane Theatre, was alarmed at losing business to the Pic Nics. Sheridan used his influence to have the Pic Nics shut down; but not before the caricaturist
James Gillray had ridiculed the lot of them in 1802.
Just as Sheridan was becoming furious in London, picnics were taken up by the emergent middle classes and moved outdoors. Why? Possibly the socially aspirational applied a fashionable French word to a pre-existing practice, without being aware of its connotations. Anyhow picnicking ceased to be associated with music-dancing and became a simple, hosted meal. And thanks to the idealisation of the countryside, the event became more innocent.
The earliest reference appeared in John Harris'
The Courtship, Merry Marriage and Pic Nic Dinner of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren (1806), a children’s book. But such was its popularity that it soon found its way into literary works. In 1808, writer
Dorothy Wordsworth picnicked with others on Grasmere Island. In
Emma (1816)
Jane Austen gave a vivid portrait of a rustic picnic on Box Hill.
James Tissot
Holyday, aka The Picnic, c1876.
Tate Gallery
In the Victorian era, picnics were grand affairs! In 1861, a definitive list of upper class Victorian picnic fare appeared in
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. One couldn't eat outdoors without tables, linens, crystal and servants!
The development of new modes of transport (trains, cars, bikes) and the acceleration of social change made the country accessible to a greater proportion of the population. Before long, their popularity had grown so much that picnic baskets were being produced for the mass market eg
Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows (1908).
Though restoration of the French monarchy accompanied the return of picnicking to French aristocracy, the indoor version prevailed. When outdoor picnics eventually gained ground in France, they were regarded with suspicion. Perhaps because of a growing reaction against the Romantic idealisation of nature, they were not seen as innocent and wholesome. But as decadent. This was most evident in
Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1862-3), depicting one naked and one scantily clad woman, picnicking with two fully dressed men.
As the outdoor picnic found its way to the USA, it remained a genteel pursuit of the urban middle classes. But unlike in Britain, its bucolic setting was associated more with a flight from civilisation than with childlike simplicity. Though still tinged with innocence, depictions of American picnics eg by
Thomas Cole and Winslow Homer, tended to be craggier.
Pierre-August Renoir's
Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881
The Phillips Collection, Washington DC
Now allow me to add important possibilities that had nothing to do with France. People have been eating outside since the beginning of time. The outdoor affair was like a lucky-dip meal; a group of people got together, each contributing to the meal. Consider
Robin Hood and his Merry Men who informally dined outside on bread, cheese and ale. And during the C14th, the earliest picnics were medieval hunting feasts in England. These pre-hunt feasts were important, specialising in hams, baked meats and pastries.
Now consider that outdoor summer meals were very popular in countries with long, cold winters. The concept of a picnic was known in
Russia, Germany and Sweden before it became part of English society. Russians loved holding picnics, partially because sunny weather was a rare delight to be treasured.
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) cited the experience in a number of his stories, usually along a river or beach. The Romanovs had elaborate feasts that richly fed dozens of people; my grandmother had Friday night left-overs, just for the immediate family.
Picnic at Freshwater NSW, 1895, centred around cricket
photographer Arthur Phillips
Collection: Powerhouse Museum
But in
Australia, the hottest, most outdoorsy time of year was always
Christmas to New Year, when workers were given paid holidays and schools were closed. See the Australian picnic with young men and women: cricket stumps and bat were visible, as were the billy and picnic hamper. Kitchen items eg cheap versions of cups, plates and picnic cases, were advertised in the catalogues of turn-of-the-century shops eg Anthony Hordens and later David Jones.
School girls enjoying a picnic at Hanging Rockset in 1900 in Macedon Ranges Vic
Forward
Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967) was one of Australia’s most famous books and films. The teenage girls came from a classy private boarding school in the City.
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