Edouard Manet is generally considered the father of the Impressionist movement, though not necessarily a part of it. He made an incredibly strong influence with paintings that shocked viewers and critics both stylistically and in subject matter.

The relatively large (about four by six feet) oil painting, Olympia, is a perfect example of an image that does just that: provoking with his portrayal of prostitution with a strong female who disrupts the general concept of the male gaze (referred by Anna Chave as “trauma of the gaze” in reference to Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon). The trauma of the gaze refers to the viewer being stared down by the subject as opposed to vice versa, giving the subject a sense of “nonvulnerability” and preventing, in this case, the objectification of a prostitute by giving her control of her own body and who views it.

Certain formal elements help to show that some of the scandalous nature of the painting originates not from the nudity of the subject (which was common at the time), but her control of the nudity and her aggressive display of it. For example, she is choosing to show her figure to the viewer, as seen by the eye contact made, but she is also choosing how much to show by covering her pubic area. The colors in the piece, with dark greens in the background, and stark whites in the foreground, also draw attention to the nude figure, who is quite pale. Simultaneously, this pulls her servant (who is delivering Olympia flowers from a client) into the background with her darker skin blending with the curtains behind her, although she is also wearing a white gown, which keeps her connected to the subject visually.

Here, issues of race representation already arise, as only one of the two women featured is in this piece is shown to have control over her own body. And, in fact, a prostitute, who is known for a sort of giving away of her physical self and is often looked down upon for said commodification of her body is seen as more powerful than a hard-working black woman. In fact, since the woman is her servant, it shows Olympia as having control not only over herself, but also the body of another woman, which is seemingly acceptable due to her race. Additionally, having a black servant attend to a white woman in France during this time was significant for its colonial connotation (France was mainly a colonial power in north Africa during the 19^th century), providing a microcosm of the power struggle of colonialism that left white European culture as superior. The gaze of the servant also serves an important role here (especially due to the piece’s deliberate disturbance of the gaze with the subject), drawing a line again to the subject, whose legs connect her back to the servant. The way the viewer’s eyes move over the body of the prostitute to her servant through the servant’s gaze back to the prostitute creates movement in the piece that gives us the opportunity to explore the details of the prostitute and makes her the obvious focal point.

Stylistically, the lighting in this image is also very harsh, giving her body a stark realism, instead of the blown out lighting and soft plumpness often seen in other nudes at the time—she was also a bit thinner than was common. Because Manet was chronologically situated prior to the Impressionist movement, he also had strong roots in Realism, which can explain another purpose for his work: to create a more honest depiction of European women of the time by giving one personality and power. Additionally, this helps to explain the outrage over the image because it forced Europeans to take an honest look at their own cultural practices, especially during a time of colonialism and Orientalist art that often depicted nude women in explicit ways without scandal because they were “other” or foreign.

This leads one to believe that the intended audience was the general bourgeoisie European public who were already looking at colonial art (and other art) of the time that idealized the female as a perfect object to be obtained and Manet was hoping to flip this notion on its head. He does play into some Eurocentric tropes, however, through his clear distinction between the wealthy and power wielding, independent white woman and the subservient black help.