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However, the difference betweenOlympiaand other great works of art that initially faced comparable revulsion is thatOlympiashocks still.
Manets painting was seen as an offense, an affront, a joke.
(Manet wrote to Baudelaire looking for comfort.
Viewers had come expecting handsome renderings of light and shadow done with little to no brushwork showing.
ButOlympiais not smooth or easy.
The composition is awkward, exaggerated, blocky.
Her expression is unashamed and confrontational, so different from those of the passive odalisques that came before her.
She reclines on a bed of white silken pillows and sheets, propped up on her right elbow.
We are stopped here.
So close, so far, so challenging, so What are you looking at?
Her whole demeanor is an invitation to approach and a warning to stay away.
A black cat at her feet looks directly at us with big staring eyes and arches its back.
The Black model is Laure.
We do not know her last name, though like Meurent she posed for Manet multiple times.
She is dressed in a light pink, holding a bouquet of flowers.
After all, only the white body is meant to be admired and desired here.
He described Laure in his journal as being very beautiful.
Manet was born into wealth.
His mother was the daughter of a diplomat and the goddaughter of Swedish royalty.
His father was a magistrate and head of personnel at the Ministry of Justice.
Manet veered from that path and pursued painting.
His brush handling is simultaneously studied and quick, deft and unpredictable.
He was instrumental in breaking the strangle-hold on painting that was classic western perspective.
Before him, there had been Delacroix, Turner, Corot, Courbet, and others.
After Manet, art was up for grabs.
Like the viewer, she is looking at Meurent.
But the viewer can see her too.
Manet/Degas opens September 24 at Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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