The Family Reunion

Frédéric Bazille’s The Family Reunion assembles thirteen members of the artist’s family on the shaded terrace of his uncle’s property at Méric, near Montpellier. Painted in 1867, the work combines the clarity of a formal group portrait with the freshness of painting out of doors — the light filtering through the trees, the figures caught in casual attitudes. Bazille, who died young in the Franco-Prussian War, was a crucial link between Realism and Impressionism, and this is his masterwork.