A Modern Olympia

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A Modern Olympia: Paul Cezanne

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Paul Cezanne Oil Painting - A Modern Olympia

Keywords: Modern, Olympia

Work Overview: A Modern Olympia
Paul Cezanne
Date: 1874
Style: Impressionism
Period: Impressionist period
Genre: genre painting
Media: oil, canvas
Dimensions: 55 x 46 cm
Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Cézanne's early works, executed in dark colours, were largely inspired by the old masters and by the paintings of Delacroix, Daumier and Courbet. A painting from 1870 already featured A Modern Olympia (private collection) in response to Manet's great painting that had caused such a scandal at the 1865 Salon.

A few years later, Cézanne tackled this theme once again, but this second version was very different, with its luminous, dazzling colours and its brilliant execution reminiscent of Fragonard's paintings. At that time Cézanne's style was moving towards Impressionism. It was during his stay with Doctor Gachet at Auvers-sur-Oise that, in the heat of a discussion, Cézanne picked up his paintbrush and produced this coloured sketch, thus creating a much more daring interpretation of Manet's subject. The contrast of the nudity of the woman, uncovered by her black servant, with the elegant attire of the man in black, who looks strangely like Cézanne, and who watches her like a spectator, all contribute to the erotic and theatrical character of the scene. This effect is further accentuated by the presence of a curtain hanging on the left of the picture.

During the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, this somewhat incredible evocation was scorned by both public and critics. In the review L'artiste on 1 May 1874, Marc de Montifaud wrote: "like a voluptuous vision, this artificial corner of paradise has left even the most courageous gasping for breath…. and Mr Cézanne merely gives the impression of being a sort of madman, painting in a state of delirium tremens ".

r. Paul-Fernand Gachet was an admirer of Cézanne's paintings. He had come to live in Auvers-sur-Oise. He had met Cézanne through Pissarro, and persuaded him to come and live nearby in Auvers. Cézanne felt happy in the company of Gachet and his wife. One day, the discussion turned to Manet's painting Olympia, and Cézanne's version, A Modern Olympia, painted three years previously. Cézanne promptly took up his brush and painted a second version, unusually quickly by his standards. This relaxed painting, full of subtle irony, differs from the earlier version, which was stiffer and clumsier; it has a soft, delicate vividness which captures the sensuality of the scene.

A Modern Olympia, by Paul Cézanne, is an oil on canvas artwork presently owned by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. It is a small painting that measures 18.11 by 21.9 inches. It was completed around 1873.

Style and Composition
Cezanne had tackled the subject in an earlier painting dating from 1870, when the painter had been inspired by Manet’s Olympia. By the time he addressed the subject again, his style had moved increasingly towards impressionism, which is demonstrated in this painting.

The painting depicts a naked, black servant dramatically removing a sheet from a bed, revealing Olympia who is also naked. In the foreground, a balding, bearded man is sitting on a couch watching the scene. It is almost certain that the man is Cézanne himself.

Controversy
As with Monet’s painting, this work was considered quite shocking at the time. Olympia was a name used to describe prostitutes in Paris. This blunt portrayal of what is seemingly a client visiting a prostitute attracted a lot of criticism from both the general public and art critics.

This composition is Cézanne's adaptation of the theme of the demi-mondaine, or high-class prostitute suggested in Édouard Manet's scandalous Olympia of 1863. Unlike Manet's treatment, however, Cézanne portrays the prostitute as an awkwardly naked and recoiling figure, setting off the figures of her suitor (completely invisible in Manet's rendering of the subject) and an African chambermaid as transgressing "outsiders." The figures are depicted in both an expressive and abbreviated, indeed almost ungainly manner, with facial features only vaguely outlined, like masks, while their fleshy, corpulent bodies are visually articulated by dynamic, curving contours. The interior of the room is defined by a series of sweeping diagonals and bold colors depicting draperies, fruit, and an implied floral arrangement (Manet's version of the subject sported a resplendent bouquet in the center of the canvas). The suitor may be equated with Cézanne himself, possibly referring to his well-known anxiety with the opposite sex, which he struggled with throughout his life.

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Paul Cezanne

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