Edouard Manets Olympia Emphasizes What Two Important Characteristics of Modern Art

In the 19th century, several major art movements emerged in Europe, including Realism and Impressionism. Though drastically dissimilar in manner, this pair of genres had ane important artist in mutual: Édouard Manet. Manet's groundbreaking work both blurs the line and bridges the gap betwixt the distinctive movements, with the world-famous Olympia serving equally a key instance.

Through a contemporary lens,Olympia is embraced equally an important precursor to modern art. Nevertheless, when Manet revealed this piece at Paris' prestigious salon, both its bailiwick thing and style acquired an unprecedented stir. Ironically, it is this scandal that would play a pivotal role in the painting's eventual fame and that would help put Manet's proper name on the map.

Manet's Early Work

Édouard Manet, "Music in the Tuileries," 1862 (Photo: Wikimedia Eatables Public Domain)

In 1850, French painter Édouard Manet launched an art career in Paris. At this fourth dimension, he worked in the studio of academic painter Thomas Couture and spent his time copying masterworks in the Louvre. With such traditional influences, it is no wonder that Manet's early work typically favored religious, mythological, and historical subject field matter.

In 1860, withal, Manet'southward work began to hint toward a new and avant-garde approach. With works similar The Spanish Singer andMusic in the Tuileries—painted in 1860 and 1862, respectively—he abased conventional iconography in favor of contemporary subjects. While these works were met with mostly positive reviews by critics, his work the following twelvemonth would turn the fine art world on its head.

In 1863, Manet completed two significant works:The Luncheon on the Grass andOlympia. Featuring nude female figures from everyday life rendered realistically and on a large scale, these works were unprecedented. While The Luncheon on the Grass was rejected by theAcadémie des Beaux-Arts, the organization responsible for France'south annual fine art salons, Olympia was accustomed—though its exhibition was not without controversy.

Olympia

Édouard Manet, "Olympia," 1863 (item)

Field of study Matter

Olympia features two figures: a nude (modeled after Victorine Meurent, who also posed for The Luncheon on the Grass) lounging on a bed and a servant standing at its foot. Both the reclining figure's nudity and position allude to past works, including Venus of Urbino, a Renaissance painting by Titian; Ingres' Odalisque with a Slave; and The Nude Maja, ane of Francisco Goya'south nigh famous paintings.

Dissimilar these past works, however, Olympia was reviled for presenting the "cold and prosaic reality of a truly contemporary subject." This reaction was primarily fueled by three characteristics of the painting. The commencement is that Olympia, the nude figure, was intended to be a prostitute—an element emphasized by the symbolic presence of a black cat and a bouquet of flowers.

The second, surprisingly, is her accessories; the black ribbon she wears on her neck, the orchid in her hair, and her slung-off shoe accentuate her nudity while simultaneously illustrating Olympia'due south own comfort with her lifestyle.

Lastly, the figure'southward self-assured and directly-ahead gaze was viewed as controversial. Also evident inThe Lunch on the Grass, Manet's inclusion of a female person nude with a "calculating look" was strategic, as it connects the viewer to the canvas and allows them to engage with Olympia.

Reception

In addition to its blatant sexual undertones, critics were displeased by Manet's realistic rendering of the figure, whose coloring was compared to "the horror of the morgue" and whose hands and feet were referred to equally "dirty" and "wrinkled," respectively.

It is this actuality, withal, that garnered the approval of Manet's friends and fellow creatives. "When our artists give us Venuses, they correct nature, they lie," writer Emile Zola said in 1863. "Manet asked himself why lie, why not tell the truth; he introduced us Olympia, this fille of our time, whom you meet on the sidewalks."

Manet's decision to describe an everyday person in an ordinary setting is what placed him at the forefront of both the Realist and Impressionist movements. Though he believed his work more than closely resembled Realism, he began working and exhibiting with the Impressionists in 1868, culminating in a career-long relationship with the movement.

"When you look at it," Manet remarked well-nigh a painting'southward discipline, "and above all, when you see how to render it as y'all see it, [that] is, in such a manner that [information technology makes] the same impression on the viewer equally it does on yous."

Olympia Today

Along with The Luncheon on the Grass, Olympia currently hangs in Paris' Musée d'Orsay. While it has been a tried and true highlight of this museum for decades, it continues to inspire new debates and dialogues.

Specifically, the role of the black retainer—modeled after a woman named Laure—has finally come up into the spotlight. Following a cord of studies on Laure, the Musée d'Orsay has made her a focal bespeak of Blackness Models: from Géricault to Matisse, a contempo big-scale exhibition. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach to a multi-layered concept, Blackness Models explored the role of Laure and other blackness figures in art in order to offer an unprecedented look at the "artful, political, social and racial issues too as the imagery unveiled by the representation of black figures in visual arts."

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