Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Manet's Olympia: Changing The Way People View The Nude, Esther Mizel

Student Scholarship

The nude was the epitome of art in the late 1800s in France. They had to follow set rules in order to be considered " art'' and not, as the subject depicted courtesans. Nudes typically were represented as either goddesses or women in historical stories. Modernists were known for seeing things differently than the rest of the artistic community including when considering nude paintings. Edouard Manet( l832-1883) the "Father of Modernism" was not interested in idealizing the female form. He is known for challenging ideas that the bourgeoisie thought to be fact. He showed the nude for what she really …