Manet

The French painter Édouard Manet (1832-1883), who endured mockery and scorn during his lifetime for both his style and his subjects, is now regarded as a pivotal innovator in painting and a precursor of Impressionism. Manet broke away from the academic painting tradition of his time, even as he frequently referenced old masters like Goya, Velázquez, Rubens, or Frans Hals, and introduced new subjects and unconventional representations into painting. He depicted everyday scenes from Parisian bars and cabarets and dared to portray nudity without any mythical or allegorical embellishment. The Paris Salon was outraged by his "Luncheon on the Grass," featuring a naked woman alongside clothed men, while the direct gaze and unabashed pose of the alleged courtesan Olympia, a very modern reinterpretation of Titian's "Venus of Urbino," caused a scandal.