A painting a day · No. 24 of 38
Olympia
Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
1863 · Oil on canvas · Musée d'Orsay, Paris
The story
Manet took the pose of Titian's Venus of Urbino and made her a modern Parisian courtesan. At the Salon of 1865 it caused a scandal; guards had to protect it from angry visitors.
Look closer
- She looks straight at you, calm and unembarrassed.
- Titian had a sleeping dog at her feet (loyalty). Manet put an arched black cat.
- The maid brings flowers, probably from a client.
Did you know
The model, Victorine Meurent, was a painter herself and showed at the Salon. In 1890 Monet raised money to buy Olympia for France.
Why we can show it
Édouard Manet died in 1883. UK copyright lasts for the artist’s life plus 70 years, so even under today’s rules this painting would have been free for anyone to show since 1954. The photograph is a faithful copy of a flat work, which creates no new copyright. We do not store the picture: it comes from Wikimedia Commons each time it is needed. More on this.