Women d'Orsay Museum

Olympia caused an enormous controversy when it first appeared at the Paris Salon in 1865. Much like Édouard Manet’s The Luncheon on the Grass (painted only a year before Olympia), this painting was flagrantly sexual and overly suggestive, crossing social mores while at the same time re-imagining what art could be.

The character of Olympia was modeled by Victorine-Louise Meurent, who was herself an accomplished French painter and talented musician.

She began modeling for Manet in 1862. He discovered her on the street, lugging around a guitar with her bright red hair shining in the sun. At the time, she was a singer and musician, but after meeting Manet she became a popular model. Edgar Degas and Alfred Stevens hired her as well.

In the 1870s, she began taking art lessons. Her talent developed quite rapidly, but her style was much more traditional than Manet’s. This created a rift in their relationship. In a few years, Maurent’s work was accepted in the juried exhibition of the Paris Salon, while Manet’s was rejected.

While they could not agree on the direction that art should take, together they created amazing work that survives today as remarkable moments in art history. In particular, Olympia stands as one of the most important paintings of the 19th century, and a moment when changing sexual attitudes and new trends in art converged for a moment of scandal.

Claude and Camille Monet were deeply in love, and yet, through the harassment of debt collectors and the troubles of wartime, their marriage was anything but easy. Still, they shared incredible love.

Camille posed for many of Claude’s paintings, playing the subject in some of the most notable works in his career. At the Musée d'Orsay, there are three Monet paintings in particular that show the story of their marriage and the development of the 19th century’s most influential artist. Across these works, we witness the flow of time and the ascendance of true genius.

The earliest of these is Femmes au Jardin (1866). Monet was only 26 when he painted this, and it was not appreciated by the art critics of his time. But today, we can see his style emerging. The brush strokes are becoming more visible, the subject matter is made up of daily life, and the colors of the dresses match and rhyme off of each other. Camille posed for all three women in the painting, and the setting is their own Paris yard at the time.

 At only 32 years of age, Camille died. Heartbroken and grief stricken, her husband was completely lost — with two sons to take care of and an art career still on unstable footing. In the depths of pain, Monet painted Camille Monet On Her Deathbed (1879). 

After having posed in so many paintings for her husband, this was her last. It is a moving tribute to Monet’s muse, the mother of his children, and his love.

This painting, officially titled Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, defies many expectations.

It is a simple image of the artist’s mother in profile, and yet it has gone on to become one of the most recognizable paintings ever made. What is even stranger, it’s by an American, yet it lives in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

It was even the subject of a US postage stamp. Yet surprisingly, it was disliked by critics when Whistler first presented it. The painting generally struck people as oddly bleak and too severe, especially for a portrait of one’s mother. 

The artist eventually pawned it off to Paris's Musée du Luxembourg. The Louvre later acquired the work. 60 years after it was painted, the Louvre loaned it to the Museum of Modern Art. Up to that point, it hadn’t really been given a broad reappraisal. 

The work became immensely popular during the Great Depression. The starkness and long-suffering look of the mother, once provoking so much criticism, suddenly seemed so real and relatable. Statues of her went up around the US, and her image became synonymous with the quiet dignity and constant struggle of life in hard times.

In the art world, the painting was part of the long trail to abstraction. Whistler himself saw it as an “arrangement” rather than a portrait. The scene and the use of color all presage major turning points in painting that would come through the 20th century.