The Uproar Caused By A Picture, Manet

The uproar caused by a picture, Manet

This work has an interesting story, it was a painting that in its time caused a fuss, but at the same time it is hypnotizing both for its details and its content.

To start it is necessary to talk about the most important part that can be noted of the work: lighting. You do not need to be an expert to notice that two lighting systems express two deeply different essences ..

The painting can be divided into two parts (the ‘division’ is the line on the grass), in the second part you can see traditional lighting that is born from the upper left that passes throughout the area and illuminates the meadow and falls on the woman’s back while detailing her face. Then, this lighting comes to an end when she clashes with two shrubs, at this specific point two illuminations coincide (lateral and triangular), this lighting creates the presence of the relief by inner light.

On the contrary, we see that the characters that are in the foreground have a totally different light. Unlike the aforementioned lighting, this is frontal and orthogonal. This light comes directly to the woman, illuminating her naked body and has the appearance of a Japanese -style painting, this same lighting also falls on the face of the man next to her, but dies when falling on the bodies of the two men present In the painting, finally a very interesting detail is the hand in the middle of the painting, this hand (no matter how simple it seems) creates the crucial axes of the painting.

Finally, it is important to mention the public’s reaction to such a work (considering the time). In summary, the work caused a stir in society for the naked woman staring at the viewer, for the bird (this creature was kept for religious paintings) and the presence of the amphibian (frog) that represents independent and free women. Also, he received criticism for lighting, lack of depth and for the combination of genres. All this and more made the work rejected for the exhibition in the Hall of 1863 and ended in ‘The Rejected Hall’. This work is considered part of the Impressionism style for its brushstrokes, nature, people and everyday life.

The dimensions of this work are 208 cm x 264.5 cm and is exhibited at the D’Orsay Museum, Paris, France.