Olympia, Édouard Manet
Date: 1863
Style: Realism
Genre: nude painting (nu)
Media: oil, canvas
Dimensions: 190 x 130.5 cm
Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Both the subject matter and its depiction explain the scandal caused by this painting at the 1865 Salon. Manet quoted numerous formal and iconographic references, such as Titian's Venus of Urbino, Goya's Maja desnuda, and the theme of the odalisque with her black slave.
The Coiffure, Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt (artist)
American, 1844 - 1926
The Coiffure, 1890-1891
drypoint and aquatint on laid paper
plate: 36.5 x 26.7 cm (14 3/8 x 10 1/2 in.) sheet: 43.2 x 30.7 cm (17 x 12 1/16 in.)
Mathews and Shapiro 1989, no. 14, State v/v
Chester Dale Collection
1963.10.257
Date: 1863
Style: Realism
Genre: nude painting (nu)
Media: oil, canvas
Dimensions: 190 x 130.5 cm
Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Both the subject matter and its depiction explain the scandal caused by this painting at the 1865 Salon. Manet quoted numerous formal and iconographic references, such as Titian's Venus of Urbino, Goya's Maja desnuda, and the theme of the odalisque with her black slave.
The Coiffure, Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt (artist)
American, 1844 - 1926
The Coiffure, 1890-1891
drypoint and aquatint on laid paper
plate: 36.5 x 26.7 cm (14 3/8 x 10 1/2 in.) sheet: 43.2 x 30.7 cm (17 x 12 1/16 in.)
Mathews and Shapiro 1989, no. 14, State v/v
Chester Dale Collection
1963.10.257
Both paintings showcase women in the nude. While The Coiffure is done in a more simple way than Olympia is, they still both
lack realistic details like many other works of art in the 250. The Coiffure is a product of drypoint etching. Drypoint is a
printmaking technique in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed needle of sharp metal or diamond point.
Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used. The word “la coiffure” is used to
describe glamorous women with impeccable taste in style. The act of grooming, dressing, and preparing one’s hair from the
seventeenth and eighteenth century days was passed down to nineteenth-century ideals of femininity and beauty. The Coiffure
showcases a woman sitting in front of a mirror tying her hair up. With her breasts exposed and her styling her own hair, the woman
in The Coiffure is symbolizing the epitome of feminine beauty within her time.
In Olympia, the woman who is laid across the bed in a simple and relaxed, yet well aware pose is "Olympia". Olympia's
confrontational gaze caused shock and controversy when the painting was first exhibited because a number of details in the
picture identified her as a prostitute. The orchid in her hair, her bracelet, pearl earrings and the oriental shawl on which she lies,
symbols of wealth and sensuality are all clues that Olympia is a prostitute. Olympia is depicted as a woman whose is captured in a
candid but also a self aware setting. Her nakedness is emphasized by the use harsh lighting. The canvas alone is 51.4 x 74.8 inches,
which is a lot larger for many works of this genre-style painting and time period. Olympia is painted fairly thin by the artistic and
female beauty standards of her time. Her relatively undeveloped body is more girlish than womanly. This can be symbolic os her
naïve nature or immaturity.
lack realistic details like many other works of art in the 250. The Coiffure is a product of drypoint etching. Drypoint is a
printmaking technique in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed needle of sharp metal or diamond point.
Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used. The word “la coiffure” is used to
describe glamorous women with impeccable taste in style. The act of grooming, dressing, and preparing one’s hair from the
seventeenth and eighteenth century days was passed down to nineteenth-century ideals of femininity and beauty. The Coiffure
showcases a woman sitting in front of a mirror tying her hair up. With her breasts exposed and her styling her own hair, the woman
in The Coiffure is symbolizing the epitome of feminine beauty within her time.
In Olympia, the woman who is laid across the bed in a simple and relaxed, yet well aware pose is "Olympia". Olympia's
confrontational gaze caused shock and controversy when the painting was first exhibited because a number of details in the
picture identified her as a prostitute. The orchid in her hair, her bracelet, pearl earrings and the oriental shawl on which she lies,
symbols of wealth and sensuality are all clues that Olympia is a prostitute. Olympia is depicted as a woman whose is captured in a
candid but also a self aware setting. Her nakedness is emphasized by the use harsh lighting. The canvas alone is 51.4 x 74.8 inches,
which is a lot larger for many works of this genre-style painting and time period. Olympia is painted fairly thin by the artistic and
female beauty standards of her time. Her relatively undeveloped body is more girlish than womanly. This can be symbolic os her
naïve nature or immaturity.