| Monet,Claude (1840-1926): Preminent and profilic French IMPRESSIONIST famous for his studies in light and colour, as in his series on Rouen cathedral seen at various times of the day under different conditions of light. Influenced by Turner's canvases, Monet began to paint water lilies in his pond at Giverny until he seems to have become obsessed with them. He created a series of huge murals, his Nympheas paintings, for the Musee L'Orangerie in Paris. **Self-Portrait. 1886. Oil on canvas. Private collection, Paris, France Manet, Edouard Painter Edouard Manet was born in Paris (1832). He's known for his controversial paintings such as "Luncheon on the Grass", which shows two clothed men and a nude woman sitting on the grass by a stream. His work was harshly received by the critics of his day, but the younger painters who were strongly influenced by his work started the movement that became known as Impressionism. Luncheon on the grass shocked a lot of people because, what "respectable" woman would picnic au naturel with two fully clothed men? Could she be a--? Her name was Victorine Louise Meurend, and she was Manet's favorite model for years. In 1865, she stunned the art world once more at the Salon in Manet's "Olympia". Imagine yourself the customer of the high-class prostitute Olympia. ("Olympia" was a common "stage name" among Parisian prostitutes.) As you enter her boudoir, you find her lounging on an elaborate bed. She is decorated with earrings, a flower in her hair, a neck-ribbon, a bracelet, a single slipper, and nothing else. Her servant presents the flowers you have brought, but Olympia gazes directly at you with an expression of bored self-assurance. Such a realistic portrayal of prostitution so outraged Parisians that "Olympia" had to be moved near the Salon's high ceiling for its own protection. Critics universally denounced its unashamed immorality. But in the decades to follow, both "Luncheon on the Grass" and "Olympia" were recognized as groundbreaking masterpieces, and found a home in the world's most renowned museum: the Louvre. Art historians have long believed that Meurend was in fact a prostitute. Recent photographic and circumstantial evidence confirms this theory: she apparently modeled for pornographic photos, something only prostitutes were willing to do at that time. Indeed, some of her photographs were also used by Delacroix (1798-1863) as references for his art. Meurend was a guitarist and a superb artist herself. Her own paintings appeared at the Salon of 1876--when Manet was rejected! And her "A Bourgeois of Nurembourg" was displayed at the Salon of 1879 in the same room as Manet's works. Meurend's long and productive life ended in 1927. |
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| Click on the picture to be taken to the Monet gallery |
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