October 23, 2023 Issue

Jackson Arn, in his “The French Connection,” in this week’s issue, says of Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863-65), “You can’t really appreciate Olympia unless you feel the rude slap of its shortcomings.” I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. Peter Schjeldahl had a more memorable response:

Here's a pop quiz: in Olympia, how many things is the model, Victorine Meurent, wearing? Time’s up. Six: a high-heeled slipper (its mate has come off), a ribbon choker with a pearl attached, a pair of earrings, a bracelet with another dangling jewel, and a flower, perhaps a hibiscus, in her hair. Every item renders her more naked, of course, as do the fully clothed black maid proffering a gorgeous bouquet, the bristling black cat, and the sumptuous topography of fringed coverlet, yielding pillows, and wrinkled sheets. Without all those objects, the painting would be a nude. With them, it’s a general-alarm fire.

I love that passage. It’s from Schjeldahl’s great “The Urbane Innocent” (The New Yorker, November 20, 2000). 

Édouard Manet, Olympia (1863-65)