Olympia
Medium
etching
Dimensions
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Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Ralph King
Accession Number
1922.186
Tags
male
About this artwork
When Edouard Manet’s painting Olympia was exhibited in Paris in 1865, it was met by the critics and general public with jeers, laughter, criticism, and distain. Manet had depicted his model, Victorine Meurent, as a modern day courtesan, confrontational rather than seductive. Manet’s depiction of a prostitute’s body in a contemporary setting was a radical rejection of the idealized beauty of the traditional female nude. Olympia forced recognition of troubled and contradictory attitudes toward pro...