Trailblazer of modern painting, the precursor who led the way to Impressionism
Seen as the pivotal figure in the move from traditional to modern painting. He painted the real life of contemporary Paris, replacing delicate light-and-shadow gradation with bold flat blocks of color. Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, seating a nude woman beside clothed men at a picnic, and Olympia, a prostitute staring straight at the viewer, both caused an uproar in their day — he dragged painting from myth and history back to the present, the real, the even unsettling.
In 1863 Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe was shown at the Salon des Refusés, a nude woman sitting unconcerned between two suited gentlemen, gazing at the viewer. Neither goddess nor allegory, only a scene of modern Paris — and critics were scandalized. It was exactly this "offense" that broke open the first door for Impressionism and all of modern art.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.