Jeanne Julian 

Icelandic Picnic

— After the painting Icelandic Picnic by Louisa Matthiasdottir

Once I thought I’d go
to Iceland. Why? they’d ask,
those who’d only picnic
in conditions placid, perfect:
grass, croissants, bare-ass lasses.

Because of the insteads,
I said. Heathland instead
of trees, sky green instead
of black, summers cool instead
of sweltering, lava instead of sand.

It’s the “instead” that grabs us,
in Matthiasdottir’s painting,
a play on Manet’s shady déjeuner,
with its dudes and nude cocooned
in such lush forest. 

Instead, here, bundled
Icelandic picnickers loll
capped and jacketed at home
in untrammeled brilliant
horizontals of sky and heathland.

Look: these picnickers have no provisions
other than color. At one with free-form
landscape, they gaze outside the frame,
wondering what our dull galleried world
could possibly offer í staðinn, instead.

Portland Museum of Art

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