Édouard Manet’s Work Rejected by Paris Salon

In what some consider to be the birth of Modernism in art, Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe was flatly rejected by the Paris Salon for its unconventional style and subject matter. The painting, featuring a nude woman picnicking with clothed men, was considered scandalous at the time, as the nude woman was no longer cloaked under the legitimacy of Salon-approved topics such as mythology or history. This rejection prompted the state to open the Salon des Refusés, a monumental event in art history which kicked off the yet-to-be-named Impressionism movement. Some also consider this birth of Modernism but countering theories exist such as the Courbet’s Pavilion of Realism or my own that begins this chapter (the London World’s Fair of 1851). The industrialization and cultural conditions of the previous century gave rise to art based on personal experiences and non-realistic depictions of the world. A new avant-garde emerged that would go on to radically change the world of art for the next century.