Le Déjeuner de jambon

Louis XV commissioned this in 1735 for the dining room of his private apartments at Versailles, the small rooms where the king ate away from the stiff ceremony of the court. He wanted scenes of pleasure, and he ordered a companion picture from another painter to hang beside it. Lancret gave him a hunt supper in full swing. Men and women crowd a table beneath a stone satyr, and the signs of a long meal are everywhere, empty bottles, a smashed plate, faces gone red with wine. Hunting was one of the king's great passions, and this kind of relaxed feast was part of it. Sold at auction in the 19th century, the painting now hangs in the chateau at Chantilly.