Hi, I’m Sophia or Teagan & this little page is my final remake project for our Manet/Baudelaire unit. Instead of repainting Olympia, I made a mini-website that makes it so the ”background” figures are front and center, so that’s Victorine Meurent (model and painter, also Olympia) and Laure (the Black model with the bouquet).
The design of this site is based on a fan page I created for the musician TEMPOREX (which can be viewed upon removing the /olympia from the weblink - best suited for mobile, a single scrollable vertical section, and a narrow top-stick menu. Although similar, this site's color scheme and golden border can be found in Manet’s work... Blue, dark green, warm brown & the creamy ivory of Olympia’s skin.
Olympia: the modern scandal
When Manet displayed Olympia at the 1865 Paris Salon, critics referred to it as “vulgar” and “immoral” since he represented a modern courtesan rather than a mythological Venus. Olympia’s direct gaze, flat lighting, and evident prostitution (jewels, orchid, shoe) violated academic standards and scandalized the public. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_%28Manet%29?]
Art historians have demonstrated that Manet is intentionally reworking Titian’s Venus of Urbino with the curled, welcoming hand becomes a blocking gesture; the faithful little dog is swapped for an arched black cat. The huge canvas size, usually reserved for 'serious' history paintings, is now devoted to a working woman whose labor is sexual and whose power comes from looking back at us. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_%28Manet%29?]
Victorine Meurent, painter
_-_Edouard_Manet_(Museum_of_Fine_Arts,_Boston).jpg)
In the majority of museum descriptions, Victorine is depicted as “Manet’s favorite model.” However, she was much more than that. She was a working-class Parisian artist who presented her own paintings at the Salon in 1876, 1879, 1885, and 1904. In fact, in 1876, her painting was even accepted while Manet’s was rejected, silently reversing the typical relationship between the artist and the model. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorine_Meurent?]
The reimagining portrays Victorine less as an object of observation and more of a partner in crime. The portrait here functions as a sort of mini avatar for the article - she’s who we “enter” to read about the painting, not Manet.
Laure, always in the background
For a long time, Olympia’s Black maid was treated as anonymous background decor. Recent scholarship by Denise Murrell and others has recovered her name, Laure, and traced her address in Manet’s notebook to 11, rue de Vintimille, just a short walk from his studio in a neighborhood with a small but visible Black population. [https://pallant.org.uk/manets-olympia-laure-and-victorine/?]
Manet portrayed Laure Bust Long many times, including this portrait, however, her work is frequently presented as a secondary role in connection to the white protagonists. Having a separate tab and a complete image on the website does what authors like Murrell in her writing, which is bringing her into the light as a subject with a history of her own, not just in the context of Olympia’s narrative.
My remake against the foreground
Just as Manet updated Titian by replacing a goddess with a Parisian prostitute, this website attempts to modernize Manet once again by reconfiguring the central focus of his iconic painting.
I maintain the chromatic drama of Olympia (dark green, gold, ivory, and black) but instead of flesh, I apply it to text. While Manet surrounds a nude body with a gold frame, I surround words discussing labor, race, and authorship with a gold frame. This is the primary “stroke” of my adaptation.
In the 5-page essay with this site linked accordingly, I look at my remake in the context of Manet criticism on prostitution, race, and spectatorship (with references to work by T. J. Clark, Denise Murrell, and Lorraine O’Grady) to argue that even a tiny, fan-site-style page can engage in a longer history of remaking Olympia. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_%28Manet%29?]