Nude

Style

• Neoclassical - idealised, elongated, unnatural (3 extra vertebrae), serpentine, porcelin skin, enlarged hips, retrained expression, limitted colour paleette, freize-like shallow depth of space, sprezzatura
• Romantic- exotic subject matter, imagination, criticised for 'expressive' use of colour

Orientalism

• Mise en scene of Eastern culture- Hookah Pipe, turban, peacock fan
• Diaries of Lady Montagu- Harem women in colourful clothes, men make them sexual fantasies
• Ferriol engravings of Eastern culture, Arabian Nights (1704)

Imperialism

• Moral superiority of the West- White Man's Burden to civilise Orient
• Said argues the West attempt to gain domiance over Orient though cultural understanding
• Commissioned by Napoleon's sister - symbol of Imperial expansion

Real Woman

• Previous nudes had been removed from reality e.g. Cabanel, Olympia a real women- Victorie Meurent - would have been recognisable to upper class men
• Olympia call name for prostiutes, lacks large hips, challenges view and covers self
• Slipper and ribbion - naked, cat symbol of infedelity and chat sound like chatte (vagina)

Response

• Salon more lenient, in Salon des Refuses, caused public uproar, men accused
• Mantaz: 'wretched little woman', called skinny and dirty, style 'childish and unskilled'
• Manet upset: 'they are raining insults on me', had to be moved and have 2 policemen

Modernity

• Visible brushwork - quick changing Paris, looking at modern life - Baudelaire and Coutre 
• Attention to art making, flat, bright colours against dark background - Spanish influences
• Pornographic Japanese shunga print - cheap and easy to collect, graphical

Unconventional

• 15 y/o mistress, less sexualised, not confident with arms crossed - protective
• Melancholy and distant, cries, forms atstracted, right hip emphasies (ref. to childbirth)
• Mystery with women in back - could represent death, as Cyprus trees and raven do

Influences

• Tahiti- 'long lost barbarian luxury', Pahura's child died, pre-empted in The Nativity
• Daughter Aline also died that year, Gaugin had tried to kill himself, pain of syphilis
• Nevermore and raven - Poe's poetry, man driven insane by raven after lover's death

Techniques

• Post-Impressionist - non-nautralistic, use of synthetism, more flat/decorative
• Flat, freize-like, cloissionism - Bernard showing his stained glass in Brittany
• Abstracted colours, influence of Japanese and Tahitian design in patterns and silhouettes