Édouard Manet: Olympia, Scandal, and the Birth of Modern Art

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Picture this, it's 1865, and you are walking through the most prestigious art exhibition in the entire world, the Paris Salon.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:09)
Right, the absolute center of the art universe at the time.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:12)
Exactly. The room is totally packed, but there's this massive chaotic commotion happening over by one specific canvas. The crowd is absolutely furious, they are shouting, they're shoving, and you notice there are literally armed guards stationed around this one painting.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:29)
Which is just wild to think about.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:31)
Right, and they aren't there to stop someone from stealing it either, they're actually trying to stop the enraged, well-dressed art lovers of Paris from physically puncturing the canvas, like tearing it to shreds with their umbrellas and walking sticks.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:44)
That is an incredible scene to imagine, especially when you realize what they were actually looking at. Because it wasn't a call to violent revolution or some gruesome depiction of war, it was literally just a painting of a nude woman lying on a bed.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:57)
Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today, we are looking at the man who painted that canvas, Édouard Manet. We are basically unpacking how a wealthy, highly traditional Parisian accidentally became the rubble father of modern art.
And I am so excited for this because I'm just fascinated by how one single person can completely upend an entire cultural establishment, not by preaching, but just by painting the world exactly as they actually see it.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:24)
Well, the contradiction at the heart of Manet's life is really what drives his entire story. If you look at his background, he desperately wanted the approval of the traditional art world. I mean, he wanted the medals, he wanted the prestige of the official salon.
Yet, he was just constitutionally incapable of painting the way they wanted him to.
Every single time he picked up a brush, he ended up breaking their rules.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:43)
So let's start with that background because, honestly, it does not scream starving bohemian rebel. He was born in Paris in 1832 right into the upper crust of society. We are talking serious, affluent connections here.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:56)
Oh, absolutely. His family was essentially Parisian royalty and in his mother's case, actual royalty.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:02)
Wait, really?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:02)
Yeah. She was the goddaughter of the Swedish crown prince.
His father was a high-ranking French judge. So you can imagine the environment he grew up in. The expectation was completely laid out for him. He was going to study law, become a respectable professional, and maintain the family's distinguished reputation.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:20)
He just hated the idea. He was sent off to boarding school in the 1840s, showed practically zero academic talent, and was completely miserable. The only bright spot seems to be his uncle, right?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:31)
Yes, his uncle.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:32)
Who would take him to the Louvre Museum and actually encouraged him to draw.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:36)
That encouragement created a profound friction with his father. His dad pushed back hard against the idea of an art career. So as a compromise, they decided on the Navy.
In 1848, a teenage Manet gets on a training ship and sails all the way to Rio de Janeiro. But he still has to pass the naval examinations to actually join up.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:57)
And he fails. Not once, but twice. I read this and I immediately thought of a modern teenager intentionally bombing their SATs just so their parents won't force them to apply to med school. Do we think he failed on purpose?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:11)
It is entirely possible. He might have just not applied himself knowing full well what he really wanted to do with his life. But either way, after that second failure, his father finally threw in the towel.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:22)
Thank goodness.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:23)
Right. He finally allowed Manet to pursue a formal art education.
So starting in 1850, Manet begins studying under a very traditional academic painter named Thomas Couture.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:35)
But even as a student, he's a total headache for his teacher. Couture wanted his students to paint acceptable subjects, but Manet starts painting the gritty, real people of Paris.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:44)
Yeah, beggars, people drinking Absinthe.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:46)
Right, and his teacher is horrified. So where did this intense desire to paint the underbelly of Paris actually come from? If his family is conservative and his teacher is strict, who is influencing him?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:56)
Well, travel changed his entire perspective.
In the mid-1850s, Manet spent time visiting Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. But it was his exposure to the great Spanish painters, specifically Diego Velázquez and Francisco Goya, that really rewired his brain.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:12)
He spent hours copying their works in the Louvre, right? What was it about the Spanish painters that hooked him?