Picnic

Picnic (La merienda) is a tapestry cartoon painted by Goya around 1786 for the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara, now in the National Gallery in London. It depicts a group of elegantly dressed majos and majas sharing an outdoor meal on the banks of the Manzanares River, a fashionable gathering place for all classes of Madrid society. The painting belongs to Goya's later cartoon series, where the compositions achieve greater naturalism and atmospheric subtlety than his earlier designs. The gentle humor and social observation foreshadow the more pointed commentary of his later genre scenes. Having left Spain through the art market, the painting gives British audiences a rare opportunity to see Goya's decorative work.

Goya renders the outdoor scene with bright, decorative color and graceful figure arrangement, capturing the elegance of aristocratic leisure with characteristic vitality and naturalistic observation.