Olympia

Édouard Manet painted this confrontational nude in 1863, though he waited until 1865 to exhibit it at the Paris Salon. A pale woman reclines on a bed, staring directly at the viewer with an unflinching gaze. Her maid presents a bouquet from an admirer while a black cat arches its back at the foot of the bed.

The painting scandalized Paris. Critics recognized the pose from Titian's Venus of Urbino, but where Titian showed an idealized goddess, Manet presented a contemporary courtesan. The flowers, the black ribbon around her neck, and her frank expression identified her as a sex worker rather than a mythological figure. Visitors to the Salon reportedly spat at the canvas.

The model was Victorine Meurent, who posed for several of Manet's most important works. Today the painting hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, recognized as a key work in the development of modern art.