Le déjeuner sur l'herbe by Edouard Manet

Today this is one of the most famous of Manet's paintings but when exhibited for the first time it was a scandal.

The naked woman was the reason. After the post below it is funny to think it was a scandal but at that time naked women in paintings were not a contemporaneous woman as this one. She is a woman of that time and this is one of the reasons people thought it was immoral.

If she was a goddess there was not problem but she stares at you without any shame and how dare her being with two men?

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The Lunch on the Grass by Manet and Picasso's version

The Lunch on the Grass (left) is one of the most Manet's painting. When first exhibited it was a scandal just like Olympia.
Although it has references to old masters:

"The Lunch on the Grass is a painting with several overlaid themes:

- the reference to the old masters, Manet having taken his inspiration from Titian's Concert champêtre in the Musée du Louvre, and from The Judgement of Paris, an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi, after Raphael.

- the issue of the nude, "It seems I'll have to paint a nude. Very well then, I'll paint a nude for them", Manet had declared to Antonin Proust.

- the question of the subject, the reason for all the uproar surrounding it. "We cannot regard as chaste a work in which a woman, seated in the woods, surrounded by students in berets and coats, is clothed only in the shadows of the leaves" (Ernest Chesneau, quoted by Françoise Cachin in Manet, RMN, 1983).

- finally, the issue of the outdoor setting: the real open air, according to Emile Zola,

"In this painting, what one must see […] is the entire landscape, full of atmosphere, this corner of nature rendered with a simplicity so accurate…". "In this painting, what one must see […] is the entire landscape, full of atmosphere, this corner of nature rendered with a simplicity so accurate...""

The sight of these contemporary people, especially a naked woman, being exhibited next to nudes that was mythological thus very far from touch was outrageous.

Picasso repeated the scandal with his versions of Manet's painting. I truly believe that one of thousands art's functions is to change the way we see things and it is funny to see that these paintings today are considered part of cultural heritage and we can even think that Manet's nude woman is a little bit overweighted.

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Bar at the Folie Bergère by Édouard Manet

Leftt: "Bar at the Folie Bergère", 1881, by Édouard Manet.
Right: Detail

This is a very famous of Manet's painting.
At the back of the girl there is a mirror showing the scene in front of her and she doesn't seem to pay attention to any particular person or event.
Take a look at her image at the mirror at the right side of the painting. The mirror shows what is parallel to the girl but her back is painted in another angle as if it was another mirror. The man looking at her should also be depicted as if he was facing us.
Manet's solution is far more interesting and accurate than if he had painted it following the mirror's rules. This is far more warm and, why not, realistic? I believe that if we were in front of the girl our heads would turn to see the man.

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Olympia by Edouard Manet

At the post about Goya's Majas I said that there was a Manet to come and there she is: Olympia, 1863, depicting the courtesan Victorine.

These are the historical facts:

"Yet the greatest uproar was reserved for the painting in which Victorine’s sexuality is finally fully unleashed: Olympia (1863). Depicted as a prostitute, Victorine reclines queenlike on her bed, unabashedly confronting the viewer with her naked body. Olympiaappears to mock the barriers Manet previously erected against Victorine’s sexuality. Here, what little clothing Victorine wears - especially her slippers - merely serve to accentuate her nudity rather than covering it. The one real attempt at concealment is the hand that rests nonchalantly over Victorine’s genitals, and even this is less of a disguise than an emphasis upon them. It is now the model who seems in control, not the artist; she is a monster unleashed. The crowds at the Salon of 1865 reacted as if she was, at least: Empress Eugénie herself hit the painting with her umbrella as an expression of disgust, inspiring so many imitators that Olympia had to be re-hung higher on the wall, out of range (Siebert 159). Victorine’s body had burst its bonds, creating a scandal practically of its own accord. If the furor surrounding Déjeuner sur l’herbe could be attributed to the juxtaposition of men in modern dress with naked women, viewers’ strong reaction to Olympia is certainly all about Victorine. Olympia is her great victory."

I wonder what kind of nudity would cause reaction nowadays and I am sure that it can be done.

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