At the post about Goya's Majas I said that there was a Manet to come and there she is: Olympia, 1863, depicting the courtesan Victorine. These are the historical facts:
"Yet the greatest uproar was reserved for the painting in which Victorine’s sexuality is finally fully unleashed: Olympia (1863). Depicted as a prostitute, Victorine reclines queenlike on her bed, unabashedly confronting the viewer with her naked body. Olympiaappears to mock the barriers Manet previously erected against Victorine’s sexuality. Here, what little clothing Victorine wears - especially her slippers - merely serve to accentuate her nudity rather than covering it. The one real attempt at concealment is the hand that rests nonchalantly over Victorine’s genitals, and even this is less of a disguise than an emphasis upon them. It is now the model who seems in control, not the artist; she is a monster unleashed. The crowds at the Salon of 1865 reacted as if she was, at least: Empress Eugénie herself hit the painting with her umbrella as an expression of disgust, inspiring so many imitators that Olympia had to be re-hung higher on the wall, out of range (Siebert 159). Victorine’s body had burst its bonds, creating a scandal practically of its own accord. If the furor surrounding Déjeuner sur l’herbe could be attributed to the juxtaposition of men in modern dress with naked women, viewers’ strong reaction to Olympia is certainly all about Victorine. Olympia is her great victory."
