Olympia at the Salon of 1865

Manet's Olympia, a modern courtesan returning the viewer's gaze, painted with flat, frank directness, was accepted by the 1865 Salon jury and provoked one of the great scandals of nineteenth-century art. Guards were posted; critics called the picture corrupt; Manet became, unwillingly, the figurehead of the new painting.

The scandal made the gap between official taste and modern life unmissable, and gathered the younger painters of the Café Guerbois circle around Manet.