Moynihan’s Picnic was chosen as propaganda for the British Home Front in World War Two. As a war poster, it was displayed in factories and other facilities where war workers congregated as a reminder of the peace and happiness that would prevail when the war was won. It is viewed in another context long after the war, primarily as a happy landscape. You would never know its original purpose or that Moynihan painted it to smooth his anxieties.
Featured Image: Rodrigo Moynihan. Picnic (1941). Gouache and charcoal on paper. London: Arts Council Collection. The war poster A May Picnic (1944) was commissioned by C.E.M.A. (Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (later Arts Council of Northern Ireland). Though the picnic is impressionistic, the idea is recognizable and attainable.
See John Moynihan. Restless Lives: The Bohemian World of Rodrigo & Elinor Moynihan. London: Samson, 2007; Richard Shone. Rodrigo Moynihan: The End of the Picnic: Paintings & Drawings 1938-47. London: Imperial War Museum