Here I am standing inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the gallery of the Manet/Degas show observing the painting “Olympia” by the artist Édouard Manet. It is a large painting measuring 51.1 inches by 74.8 inches. Completed in 1863, it is a picture of a naked red-headed lady with lilly-white skin lying on a rumpled bed with a black maid standing behind her holding a bouquet of flowers and a surprised looking black cat standing on the end of the bed.
A great deal of information has been written about how scandalous the painting was when it was exhibited at the 1865 Paris Salon and how it was instrumental in ushering in the age of modern art. In today’s world the idea of it being scandalous is at best quaint. But that is not what I want to write about.
I was standing in front of the painting when two ladies passed briskly in front of me giving a cursory glance at the painting with one saying to the other “that’s pretty” as they quickly moved on. Art appreciation at it best. For me, I could not stop looking at the painting. The scale of the painting along with the subject matter demanded attention. While closely observing every square inch of the canvas, I began to feel I was part of the scene as if I was traveling through time. I felt as if I was standing in the room depicted in the painting but I was a photographer working with the two models. I had asked Victorine to lay on the bed. She is naked except for a flower in her hair, a bracelet on her right wrist, a black ribbon around her neck, earrings and slip-on shoes. She came to the modeling session wearing these items and I could see no reason she should remove them. I usually go with serendipity. The other model, Laure, is wearing a pink dress with a white collar, a pink hair covering and holding a large bouquet of flowers wrapped with white paper. The thing that visually stands out on her are the red dangly earrings but since her head is turned only one is visibly hanging from her left ear. It definitely held my attention. I thought about having her remove it since it was distracting but again that is how she came to the modeling session and sometimes my meddling can detract from the composition.
When Victorine positioned herself on the bed, she just naturally posed in a comfortable position with legs crossed at the ankles and her hands finding positions that look natural and relaxed. It was just a coincidence that her left hand covered her pudendum. Her torso is propped up on the bed with pillows. The white sheets are messy and rumpled but again I don’t like to tamper with such details-I take it as it is. I asked both models to look at me which I thought would be best. Victorine looked at me but Laure made a questioning glance toward Victorine as if to ask a question. I liked the way she glanced and asked her to continue with that pose. Before freezing the image for posterity, a black cat unexpectedly appeared and jumped onto the bed looking directly at me. At first, I wanted to get the cat out of the picture but decided that it filled in that empty corner and proceeded to take the final picture. As I began fading away, I thought that Édouard would be happy with my photograph.
I slowly began to hear voices and saw people around me and realized I had returned to the museum looking at “Olympia”. Even though “Olympia” is a painting, I related to it as a photograph. First, it is a nude and a large portion of my photographic work is centered on the nude. Second, it is very naturalistic in appearance and has a relaxed demeanor. Third, there is a randomness to the composition including the models’ poses, the objects, the background, and the inclusion of the unexpected (the cat). These elements show up in some of my best work.
Of course, the above account is pure speculation on my part but there is some basis that these events could be rooted in photography. I believe photography’s role may have had some significance. The painting has a modern feel to it and although no photographs have been connected to “Olympia” it seems to have a genetic relationship to photography.
It is known that Manet did use photographs for some of his paintings and etchings including “The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian” and several portraits. Some of his paintings included photographic nuances associated with light and dark areas of compositions. Historically, film initially had difficulty recording middle tones which resulted in high contrast photos. Paintings using such photographs as guides emphasized such characteristics.
Manet was not a stranger to photography (I saw him referred to as an amateur photographer) and like other painters he used photographs to help in his artistic vision.
But does it matter. It really is about the painting. What you see and feel when viewing it. The painting pulled me right into it and I felt I was there in 1863 recording the scene on film. Perhaps I did and Édouard Manet used my image to help create “Olympia.”
References: The Artist and the Camera-Degas to Picasso
Art and Photography
“Olympia” by Édouard Manet
Sleeping Mind Photography 