Realism · 1863
Édouard Manet 1832–1883
Musée d'Orsay · Paris
A courtesan meets the viewer's gaze with cool defiance — Manet's flat, modern nude that outraged 1865 Paris.
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Chapter 1 of 7
When Manet unveiled this canvas at the 1865 Salon, Paris was outraged. Here is no mythological Venus — this is Olympia, a real Parisian courtesan, painted in 1863 with brutal clarity. She reclines on white sheets, staring back at you without apology, without softness.
Realism had never felt so confrontational.
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