Impressionism and post-impressionism in painting

Paris, 1863, Palace of Industry … The jury of the famous Salon – an art exhibition held here annually – rejects about seventy percent of the works presented … Emperor Napoleon III himself had to intervene in the scandal that broke out. Having become acquainted with the rejected canvases, he graciously allowed them to be presented in another part of the Palace of Industry. So on May 15, 1863, an exhibition was opened, which immediately received the expressive name “Salon of Les Miserables”.

For years, accustomed to the official academic art, the public is completely bewildered … An explosion of laughter is caused by Edouard Manet’s “indecent” painting “Breakfast on the Grass”, which depicts two naked women surrounded by two men dressed in modern black frock coats … They are calm chatting under the shade of trees, not at all embarrassed by their appearance.

Two years later, Manet exhibited the painting “Olympia”. Numerous guards are powerless against the onslaught of an angry crowd. The next day, the painting is placed so high that the outraged audience could not pierce it with a sharp umbrella in a rage. A young naked woman with a black velvet around her neck is looking into the hall from the picture. In her, the public easily recognizes the famous Parisian grisette. Critics and the press were choking with indignation.

Very few defended the picture, including the writer Emil Zola:

“He introduced us to Olympia, a girl of our day, whom he meets on the sidewalks, wrapping her thin shoulders in a cold faded shawl … Monsieur Manet’s place in the Louvre is already secured.”