Manet's Olympia

What was the Paris Salon?

The annual art exhibition where thousands of works are submitted and chosen.

Edouard Manet context

• born into an upper-class household, didn’t necessarily need to sell work to make a living

• Taught under Thomas Couture, an innovative technical focus

• visited museums across Europe and established his own studio in 1856

The Absinthe Drinker

1859 Manet: began to make his own independent compositions.

• based on a real person, controversial to do ordinary on large scale

• influence from Velazquez, Rubens and goya

• dark painting, rejected from Salon

The Spanish Singer

1861:

• launched career and accepted to the Salon

• spanis influence

Portrait of Charles Baudelaire

1862-67:

• mutual influence and modernity in France

Manet in 1862-3

A shift in painterly style, then shows several paintings at the Valerie Martinet, having a negative reception.

Music in the Tuileries

1862:

• epitomises his change in style

• first painting of modern life, setting tone for career and impressionism

• modern setting and technique

What was the Salon des Refuses?

Artists protested the harsh Paris Salon, so Napoleon III put on a second, letting the public choose. It became a very popular exhibition.

Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe

1863:

• scandalous though application and subject

• unblended, flat

• two figured clothed, typical modern Parisian, but ignoring the female nude

• she looks out, challenging? inviting?

• not an allegorical figure, which is what makes it problematic, borrowing concept from Pastoral Concert (Titian)

1865 paintings accepted to the Salon

Olympia and Jesus Mocked the Soldiers

Olympia

1865:

• She lies on an unmade bed, a successful prostitute, a courtesan

• has her own maid

• flowers perhaps from a new client or a regular

• a cat = proclivity

• black necktie and shawl= she is making a living, blurring class boundaries

The models for Olympia

Victorine Louise Meurent: successful in her own right,

Laure: less known, but modelled in other Manet works

Context of Olympia:

• abolition of slavery, increased black workers

Influences for Olympia - writing

‘Aux Camelias’: a love story between courtesan and aristocrat, wears a camellia flower in her hair when menstruating.

Her rival courtesan is called Olympia, which was a pseudonym at the time

Influences for Olympia - visual

Titan’s Venus of Urbino, which was also speculated to be a courtesan, replaces a dog with a cat. Manet’s composition more flat, and greyer tones.

Critical Reception for Olympia

Bad. Mockery, especially on the figure, comparison to cadaver, linking prostitute and sickness

How does Olympia affect the viewer?

forced to make the connection that she is making a living, and could pose as an ordinary middle-class woman. She has power, holding eye contact, and her mostest is controlled by her own hand.