Banquet of aristocrats in the countryside - antique oil painting on canvas, 19th century

Antique painting depicting a moment of leisure of the French aristocracy of the second half of the nineteenth century, oil on canvas. The composition of the scene is occupied by various characters portrayed in the open countryside among architectural ruins, caught in a joyful picture of daily life animated by the carefree joie de vivre typical of the frivolous and worldly aristocracy. Our painting is inspired by the so-called "gallant scenes", a pictorial theme that became so prominent in European pictorial culture as early as the first decades of the 18th century to the point of having almost the dignity of a pictorial genre. It reflects a modus vivendi of the high society of the time, accustomed to the pleasures of life, to the comfort of the well-being of the court, between amusements, whims and various pleasures.