Olympia

A nude courtesan reclines on white sheets and stares straight out at the viewer with cool, appraising directness, a black ribbon at her throat, an orchid in her hair, a maid bringing flowers and a black cat bristling at her feet. Manet modeled Olympia on Titian's Venus of Urbino, also in this collection, but turned the goddess into an unmistakable modern prostitute who meets our gaze without shame. Now in the Musee d'Orsay, it caused a furor at the 1865 Salon and became a founding scandal of modern art.