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carolyn hammett | all galleries >> Galleries >> Paris May 2009 > Carolyn and Manet's "Olympia" 1863
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07-MAY-2009

Carolyn and Manet's "Olympia" 1863

In this image, I am standing beside another scandalous painting of Edouard Manet.
His "Olympia" is not scandalous because she is nude, but instead because she is not a nude goddess,
but rather a common "woman of the night" waiting for a paramour who has sent flowers being shown her by the maid.

The picture was considered by the public and the Academic artistic community as ugly and immoral because the common woman has no shading on her body,
which is comparatively "flat" with little delineation of forms or half-tones.
Another big problem is that the composition is almost directly drawn from Titian's highly revered painting "Venus of Urbino" in the Uffizi in Florence.
Manet's painting is basically a "black and white" study with the woman's nudity emphasized by the ribbon around her neck and her slippers.
Her "come hither"eye-contact with the viewer is also unprecedented. This painting was shown at the Salon of 1865, where it created quite a sensation.

Canon EOS 50D ,Canon 24-105 f.4.0 L IS
1/20s f/4.0 at 24.0mm iso400 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time07-May-2009 16:48:39
MakeCanon
ModelCanon EOS 50D
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length24 mm
Exposure Time1/20 sec
Aperturef/4
ISO Equivalent400
Exposure Bias-0.33
White Balance
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programshutter priority (2)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium original auto
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