# Olympia by Édouard Manet

- Created: 1863
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Where to see it: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France — https://worldmuseumguide.org/museums/musee-dorsay/

Olympia is an oil painting by French artist Édouard Manet, created in 1863 and exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1865, where it caused enormous scandal. It depicts a nude woman reclining on a bed, attended by a Black maidservant who holds a bouquet of flowers. The woman — modelled by Victorine Meurent — stares directly at the viewer. The painting is at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and is considered the painting that began Modernism — the moment a nude woman stopped being a goddess and became a real person.

Updated 2026-07-18. Source: https://worldmuseumguide.org/artworks/olympia/ — World Museum Guide.