Edouard Manet’s Olympia
Many art works have generated controversy in the past two centuries, but few have aroused
as much debate and had as significant an impact on the evolution of art in the U.S. and Europe as
Edouard Manet’s Olympia. A 21st century viewer might at first glance have trouble understanding
why this painting would have caused such a stir. However, when one places the work in its
appropriate cultural and historical context, it is easy to identify the reasons for the cause célèbre.
Manet completed Olympia, which is an oil on canvas painting measuring 51 X 74.8 inches, in
1863. The painting gained public notoriety when exhibited as part of the 1865 Paris Salon, the most
well-known annual or biannual art event in the Western world. For a French artist, getting art
accepted at the Salon and generating positive critical response from the Salon’s jury was the way to
establish oneself in the art world. The simple fact that Olympia appeared nude was not an issue for
the jury, critics, and members of the public. Nude sculptures and paintings had been part of the
Western artistic canon for thousands of years. Perhaps more interesting, Olympia was not without
precedent. Earlier works such as Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1538), which was based on Giorgione’s
Sleeping Venus (c.1510), clearly informed Manet as he created the work. Precedents for the depiction
of nude women attended by black servants were also prevalent. Ingres’ Odalisque with a Slave (1842)
and Leon Benouville’s Esther with Odalisque are just two examples. Unlike other artists, however,
Manet did not depict a goddess or an odalisque but a prostitute anticipating a john. Her
surroundings indicate that she is of the upper-class, but she is a prostitute nonetheless.
Manet clearly departed from the accepted norms of the Western artistic canon by depicting a
prostitute and by the manner in which he presented her. Her facial expression is direct, perhaps even
confrontational, rather than deferential as with earlier nudes. Olympia is identified quite clearly as a
prostitute. Many French viewers of the work in the 1860s would have interpreted the orchid in her
hair, her pearl earrings, her bracelet, the black ribbon around her neck, and the shawl on which she
lies as suggesting sexuality. Manet’s decision to substitute a black cat for the dog in Titian’s Venus
was perhaps the most direct indication of Olympia’s profession. At the time, a black cat symbolized
prostitution.
Olympia seems to implicate the viewer of the painting in her prurient profession, and this
served as another cause for the controversy that surrounded this work. The servant holds a bouquet
of flowers as Olympia looks at the viewer, suggesting that the viewer is the client. Also, Olympia’s
expression is one of confidence, perhaps even dominance, rather than innocence. She is not graceful
and diaphanous like many of the nudes that preceded her. The critics who viewed this painting in
the 1860s and published reviews were male, which helps explain why the manner in which Olympia
is depicted and the indication of patronizing a prostitute was so volatile. They were offended.
The paintings’ formal qualities, palette, and deviation from other stylistic norms also
contributed to the uproar. Manet’s colors are bold and the lighting is harsh. Rather than subtle
transitions in the color fields, there are large swaths of color throughout the work. The brush strokes
are broad and crudely applied. Bright hues accentuate as the focal point Olympia and the bed on
which she reclines, and the contrast with the dark background is stark. The painting is not elegant.
Perhaps most interesting to a modern viewer, and also problematic to the 19th century critic, is the
flattening of perspective in the painting. The painting is rather flat, there is little depth, and this
indicates the beginning of a transition in the art world. Later in the 19th century and in the early 20th
century, many painters would eliminate perspective from their works, and Manet’s Olympia has been
identified by many scholars as an important, early example of this trend.
Manet’s Olympia is in fact considered by many art historians to be among the most important
art works in terms of laying the foundation for the modern art of the late 19th and early twentieth
century modern art. The edgy subject matter, the unorthodox use of color, the flattening of
perspective, and perhaps even that simple fact that it enraged critics all point to the subsequent
evolution of artistic expression in the U.S. and Europe, and particularly the modern art movements
such as Impressionism and Cubism that would turn the entire Western artistic canon on its head.
Though Olympia does not arouse much controversy today among viewers or critics as she hangs on
the wall in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, her place in art history is secure. Any serious discussion of
the origins of modern art should, and probably always will, include Edouard Manet’s Olympia.
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