Hot Pamono Edouard Manet, Study on Olympia, Lithograph

A lithograph after Edouard Manet from “Die Skizzenmappe – Zeichnungen französischer Meister des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts” portfolio with text by Julius Elias, published by Marees-Gesellschaft in Munich in 1911-1918, one year before the Van Gogh portfolio, in an edition of 100 only. The portfolio consisted of 70 lithographic reproductions of drawings and watercolors by Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Armand Guillaumin, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, George Seurat, Paul Signac, Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Auguste Rodin.
As stated in the colophon, it took the publisher 7 years to complete the series.
The artwork is accompanied by a copy of the colophon.

Edouard Manet (1832-1883), after
“Studie zur Olympia” (Study on Olympia)
Colour Photo-lithograph
Signed in the plate
Year (conceived): second half of XIX Century
Year (printed): 1918
Edition: 57/100
Size (overall): 480 x 322 mm
Size of the image: 129 x 186 mm
in the original passepartout, blind-numbered 2

Blind seal of the publisher, lower right corner

Numbered 57 on the colophon, from an overall edition of 100

Printer: André Marty
Publisher: Marées-Gesellschaft, R. Piper & Co., München, 1918

Excellent condition (few signs of age in the passepartout)
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Olympia is probably the most famous painting by Édouard Manet, depicting a nude white woman (“Olympia”) lying on a bed. The painting is now in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

The figure of Olympia was modelled by Victorine Meurent. Olympia’s confrontational gaze caused shock and controversy when the painting was first exhibited at the 1865 Paris Salon, especially because a number of details in the picture identified her as a prostitute.

The title of the painting is generally attributed to Manet’s close friend Zacharie Astruc, an art critic and artist, since an excerpt from one of Astruc’s poems was included in the catalogue entry along with Olympia when it was first exhibited in 1865.

The model for Olympia, Victorine Meurent, would have been recognised by viewers of the painting because she was well known in Paris circles. She started modelling when she was sixteen years old and she also was an accomplished painter in her own right. The familiarity with the identity of the model was a major reason this painting was considered shocking to viewers. A well known woman currently living in modern-day Paris could not simultaneously represent a historical or mythological woman.

Though Manet’s The Luncheon on the Grass (Le déjeuner sur l’herbe) had sparked controversy in 1863, his Olympia stirred an even bigger uproar when it was first exhibited at the 1865 Paris Salon. Conservatives condemned the work as “immoral” and “vulgar”. Journalist Antonin Proust later recalled, “If the canvas of the Olympia was not destroyed, it is only because of the precautions that were taken by the administration.” The critics and the public condemned the work alike. Even Émile Zola was reduced to disingenuously commenting on the work’s formal qualities rather than acknowledging the subject matter: “You wanted a nude, and you chose Olympia, the first that came along”. He paid tribute to Manet’s honesty, however: “When our artists give us Venuses, they correct nature, they lie. Édouard Manet asked himself why lie, why not tell the truth; he introduced us to Olympia, this fille of our time, whom you meet on the sidewalks.”