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| Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure) | |
|---|---|
| Title | Le Déjeuner en fourrure |
| Artist | Méret Oppenheim |
| Year | 1936 |
| Medium | Fur-covered teacup, saucer, and spoon |
| Dimensions | Various |
| Location | Private collection (original), various museums (copies) |
Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure) is a 1936 surrealist sculpture consisting of a fur-covered teacup, saucer, and spoon created by Swiss artist Méret Oppenheim. The work became emblematic of the Surrealism movement and is widely cited in scholarship on Modernism, Dada, and interwar European art. It provoked discussion among critics, curators, and collectors across institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, and the Centre Pompidou.
The piece presents an ordinary set of dining implements—teacup, saucer, and teaspoon—entirely covered in fur, transforming familiar objects into uncanny artifacts. Writers and curators frequently relate it to other works by figures including Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and Salvador Dalí, situating it within exhibitions alongside objects by Pablo Picasso, Paul Éluard, Giorgio de Chirico, and Hans Arp. Critics compare its tactile inversion to earlier readymades and assemblages displayed at venues such as the Galerie Pierre and the Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois.
Oppenheim executed the work in 1936 after a conversation with Pablo Picasso and Suzanne—a remark by Pablo Picasso and Pablo Picasso's acquaintances reportedly prompted the idea—leading Oppenheim to cover a teacup, saucer, and spoon in Chinese gazelle fur. The original objects are often attributed to domestic manufacturers contemporary to the 1930s; documentation in archives of the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Swiss National Library records Oppenheim's correspondence about sourcing. Conservation specialists reference protocols used by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Smithsonian Institution when discussing treatment of organic materials like fur and hide.
The piece first entered public view in the late 1930s through displays organized around André Breton's networks and later appeared in major retrospectives at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Gallery, the Centre Pompidou, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. It was catalogued in monographic shows on Oppenheim at the Kunstmuseum Basel and in survey exhibitions on Surrealism at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Loan records in institutional archives from the National Gallery of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museo Reina Sofía document repeated international circulation. Smaller displays and academic symposia at the Courtauld Institute of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and the Getty Research Institute have further cemented its exhibition history.
From its debut, the work elicited polarized responses in journals such as Artforum, Apollo (magazine), The Burlington Magazine, and ARTnews, with commentators invoking names like Walter Benjamin, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Georges Bataille, and Jean-Paul Sartre to theorize its meaning. Conservative critics linked it to moral debates in national legislatures and cultural ministries, while avant-garde defenders compared it to Marcel Duchamp's readymades and Tristan Tzara's Dada manifestos. Controversies emerged over perceived erotic undertones and challenges to bourgeois domesticity, sparking public debates in venues including the Salon des Indépendants, the Exposition Internationale, and national museums across France, Germany, and Switzerland.
The work influenced subsequent generations of artists working with found objects and subversive materials, cited by practitioners associated with Pop Art, Fluxus, Arte Povera, and Conceptual art, including Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Yves Klein, Claes Oldenburg, and Marina Abramović. It figures in academic curricula at institutions such as the École des Beaux-Arts, the Royal College of Art, and the Slade School of Fine Art. The piece is referenced in literature by Susan Sontag, Linda Nochlin, Rosalind Krauss, and Griselda Pollock, and appears in film and television programmes produced by the BBC, Arte, and PBS. Commercial reproductions and photographic reproductions entered markets documented by auction houses like Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips, influencing collecting practices and museum acquisition policies.
Questions about authenticity, authorized casts, and later replicas involve documentation in the archives of the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Fondation Maeght, and private dealers registered with the Association of Art Museum Directors. Conservation challenges—pest control, light damage, and stabilization of organic materials—have been addressed using methodologies from the International Council of Museums and case studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Museum of Sweden. Legal disputes over provenance and export permits have appeared in records of the Cour de cassation (France), the Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland, and litigation catalogued by Art Loss Register and national cultural heritage agencies. Scholarly debates continue in journals affiliated with the College Art Association and conferences sponsored by the Cultural Property Advisory Committee.
Category:Surrealist artworks Category:1936 works