Édouard Manet's 'Olympia' (1863) scandalised the Paris Salon of 1865 by translating Titian's 'Venus of Urbino' into the sharp modern idiom of a Parisian courtesan. The naked Olympia confronts the viewer with a blunt, direct gaze while her dark-skinned maid offers a bouquet sent by an off-stage client. By swapping the goddess for a contemporary sex worker and staring back at the audience, Manet forced questions about class, race, and the politics of looking into the heart of Salon culture — making the painting a founding provocation of modernism.

Exhibition Venue

Musée d'Orsay

Paris, France