Image:
Detail from Manet鈥檚 鈥淥lympia鈥 (1863; oil on canvas, Mus茅e d鈥橭rsay, Paris). When first exhibited in the Salon of 1865, Manet鈥檚 image of the nude painter Victorine Meurent, his longtime model, muse, and mistress, provoked anger and popular outrage. 脡mile Zola reacted differently: 鈥淲hen other artists correct nature by painting Venus they lie. Manet asked himself why he should lie. Why not tell the truth?鈥 See Alexander Nehamas on "The Art of Being Unselfish."