but blatantly rejects academic precept. Alphonse de Calonne outlined the con- ventional view in 1853: In a painting nothing should be left to chance; everything should be carefully calculated and worked out. If the painter focuses the light on a particular point in his picture, this is to give greater significance to that point. In a landscape or an interior, this point may be chosen merely for its material effect; the principal sub- ject in a picture of this sort is always the interior or the landscape itself. However, in a composition where groups of figures play a part in the action . . . , the effects of light must be calculated so as to give greater significance to the principal characters; above all, one must avoid attracting attention to secondary objects and producing a confused and disjointed effect.64 In La Promenade both figures are crucial to the action, but they are very differently treated. The woman is fully and frontally lit; she is emphatically the prime focus of the picture. Only scattered flashes of sunlight illuminate the man—on his trousers and hands, his collar and hat-—while the rest of his figure is seemingly absorbed into the foliage behind him. By contrast, the pathway through the woods—a "secondary object"—is largely in sunlight, providing a clear visual pointer out of the picture. This, of course, is a significant factor in the action, directing attention to the path that the man urges the woman to fol- low, to the prospective action of the couple. This playful contrast between lit and shadowy figures is heightened by the shade on the man's face and the highly simplified, almost caricatural treatment of his features. There are no signs of individualization here! Im- mersed in the woods, he becomes a Pan-like or satyr-like figure, luring his mod- ern nymph into his lair. Viewed in this context, La Promenade becomes a Figure 39 delightful parody of one of the most notorious genres of contemporary academic Alexandre Cabanel painting, exemplified by Cabanel's Nymph Abducted by a Faun [FIGURE 39], pur- (French, 1823-1889). chased by Napoleon III at the 1861 Salon and exhibited again at the 1867 Nymph Abducted by a Faun, 1860. Oil on can- Exposition Universelle. vas, 245 x 142 cm (96V x 557/s in.). Lille, 2 As a genre painting of modern life, La Promenade has none of the Musee des Beaux-Arts, no. 525. illegibility and inscrutability of Manet's Salon genre paintings [FIGURE 19, for 58