Réunion de famille
Bazille's extended family posed on the shaded terrace of their country house near Montpellier, the valley of the Lez behind.
Domaine de Méric, Montpellier
The painting depicts a real landscape or cityscape. The precise viewpoint the artist used may be unknown, so the marker shows the general area.
Réunion de famille — at a glance
- Artist
- Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870)
- Year
- 1867–1868
- Movement
- Impressionism (early)
- Place
- The terrace at Méric, Castelnau-le-Lez, near Montpellier, France
- Viewpoint
- The family's country terrace — the site is now the parc de Méric; the open valley view is gone
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 152 × 230 cm
- Now at
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Overview
Family Reunion is Frédéric Bazille's most ambitious surviving picture, painted in 1867 and reworked in 1868, and shown at the Salon of 1868. Under a large chestnut tree on a stone terrace, eleven members of his prosperous Protestant family from Montpellier are grouped in their Sunday best, most of them looking out at the viewer; Bazille has painted himself in at the far left edge. Beyond the terrace, a bright valley. It is oil on canvas, about 152 by 230 cm, and it hangs in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
Where was Réunion de famille painted?
Scholarship The setting is the terrace of the domaine de Méric, the Bazille family's country property on the river Lez just outside Montpellier, in the south of France, looking towards the village of Castelnau-le-Lez — the same terrace and view Bazille used in ‘The Pink Dress’. Montpellier and Castelnau have since merged into one built-up area and the open valley is gone; the site of Méric survives as a public park (parc de Méric), so the place can be visited but the view in the picture no longer exists.
How we know
- The terrace of the Bazille family's country property, the domaine de Méric on the river Lez — today a 12-ha municipal public park (634 rue de Ferran, Montpellier) presented as 'Méric, lieu d'inspiration de Frédéric Bazille', with an annual re-enactment of this painting on the actual terrace. Pin moved from the Castelnau-le-Lez village point ~1 km east across the river.
What is in the painting?
The family is arranged across the terrace in twos and threes: seated couples on a bench and chairs, standing figures leaning on the low parapet, two women seated on the ground with a parasol, a girl in a striped dress. Almost every face is turned to the viewer, as in a photograph. The chestnut canopy casts flat shadow over the group; past the parapet, sunlit trees and the pale valley under a clear sky; Bazille himself stands half-in at the left.
Look closely
The direct gazes
Almost every family member looks straight out at the viewer, as in a formal photograph.
Bazille at the edge
The artist has painted himself half-in at the far left, joining his own group portrait.
The chestnut shade
The tree casts a flat, even shadow over the whole terrace group.
The Midi valley
Past the parapet, sharp sunlit trees and pale valley under a deep southern sky — now built over.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A frieze of eleven posed figures under a canopy of shadow, set against a sunlit landscape beyond the parapet.
Scholarship Bazille spreads the family across the picture in a shallow band, linking them by glance and gesture rather than action, and contrasts the shadowed terrace with the bright valley behind. The careful, slightly stiff arrangement and the direct gazes give it the feel of a formal photograph translated into strong outdoor colour.
Colour and light
Cool terrace shadow and dark Sunday clothes against the hard sunlit greens and blues of the Midi valley.
Bazille sets the group's blacks, whites and a few bright dress colours in even shade under the tree, and the landscape beyond in the sharp light and deep sky of the south — two clearly separated zones of light.
History & provenance
The painting stayed with the family, who gave much of Bazille's work to Montpellier and the French state; Family Reunion is in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
Sources
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris — collection entry for Frédéric Bazille, ‘Réunion de famille’ (1867–68; oil on canvas, c. 152 × 230 cm)
- Musée Fabre, Montpellier — Bazille and the domaine de Méric
Related paintings
The Pink Dress
1864
Bazille on the same terrace, a single figure looking at the same valley.
Bazille's Studio
1870
Bazille's other group portrait, his Paris studio and the Impressionist circle.
Garden at Sainte-Adresse
1867
Monet's 1867 terrace above the sea — Bazille's close friend on a parallel idea.
More by Frédéric Bazille
Bazille's Studio
