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Source Description
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 prostitution in the mid-19th century, much to the discomfort of contemporary audiences. The artist made this etching to reproduce his controversial painting.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
104013
label
Olympia
core
obj
dtoType
print
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
104013
contentType
print
title
Olympia
description
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 prostitution in the mid-19th century, much to the discomfort of contemporary audiences. The artist made this etching to reproduce his controversial painting.
date
1867
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79510229
creators
1796
genreSpecific
Print
imageCount
1
source
import
cul
France, 19th century
accession
1922.186
Source extras
tec
etching
tombstone
Olympia, 1867. Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883). Etching. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Ralph King, 1922.186
collection
PR - Etching
didYouKnow
Manet's model, Victorine Meurent, was herself a successful painter who showed her work at Paris's salon.
catalogueRaisonne
Harris 53
creditline
Gift of Ralph King
updatedAt
2026-05-29 05:36:53.315000
sourceId
104013
dept
Prints
coll
PR - Etching
med
etching
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
7bfa65f8d8c3e458