Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)
 

The artwork Quai du Louvre (also Wharf of Louvre, Paris) is an oil on canvas painting by the  Claude Monet in the year 1867. A quintessential example of the Impressionist movement, the painting measures 93 by 65 centimeters and can be categorized as a cityscape genre. This piece is part of the collection at the Gemeentemuseum den Haag in The Hague, Netherlands.
The artwork epitomizes Impressionist sensibilities with its vivid representation of light and atmosphere. It portrays a bustling Parisian riverside scene near the Louvre, filled with activity and movement. The use of quick, visible brushstrokes imbues the scene with a sense of immediacy and the transient effects of light, a hallmark of the Impressionist style.

https://www.artchive.com/artwork/wharf-of-louvre-paris-claude-monet-1867/

Quai du Louvre
1867
65.1 x 92.5 cm
Oil on canvas
Kunstmuseum, Den Haag, Nederland
https://www.kunstmuseum.nl/en/collection/quai-du-louvre

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)
 

Olympia is an 1863 oil painting by Édouard Manet, depicting a nude white woman ("Olympia") lying on a bed being attended to by a black maid. The French government acquired the painting in 1890 after a public subscription organized by Claude Monet. The painting is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. 
The figure of Olympia was modeled by Victorine Meurent, and that of her servant by Laure. Olympia's confrontational gaze caused shock and controversy when the painting was first exhibited at the 1865 Paris Salon, especially because a number of details in the picture identified her as a prostitute. 
The title of the painting is generally attributed to Manet's close friend Zacharie Astruc, an art critic and artist, since an excerpt from one of Astruc's poems was included in the catalogue entry along with Olympia when it was first exhibited in 1865.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_(Manet)

Olympia
1863-65
Oil on canvas
130.5 x 190 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/olympia-712

 

Though Manet's The Luncheon on the Grass (Le déjeuner sur l'herbe) had sparked controversy in 1863, his Olympia stirred an even bigger uproar when it was first exhibited at the 1865 Paris Salon. Conservatives condemned the work as "immoral" and "vulgar". Journalist Antonin Proust later recalled, "If the canvas of the Olympia was not destroyed, it is only because of the precautions that were taken by the administration." The critics and the public condemned the work alike. Even Émile Zola was reduced to disingenuously commenting on the work's formal qualities rather than acknowledging the subject matter: "You wanted a nude, and you chose Olympia, the first that came along". He paid tribute to Manet's honesty, however: "When our artists give us Venuses, they correct nature, they lie. Édouard Manet asked himself why lie, why not tell the truth; he introduced us to Olympia, this fille of our time, whom you meet on the sidewalks."

 

 

 Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)

A lot of artists made a reaction on yesterday’s painting by Manet, also Monet:

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (English: Luncheon on the Grass) is an 1865–1866 oil-on-canvas painting by Claude Monet, produced in response to the 1863 work of the same title by Édouard Manet. It remains unfinished, but two large fragments (central and left panels) are now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, while a smaller 1866 version is now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. 

Monet originally wanted to submit the painting to the Salon of 1866, but he underestimated how long it would take him to transfer his sketches to a life-size canvas, so it remained unfinished by the time of the exhibition. 

Monet later offered the large canvas of Déjeuner to his landlord in place of rent. When Monet bought it back from his landlord, it was badly damaged from the damp environment in which it was stored.

Monet had to cut it up in order to preserve the non-damaged parts. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Déjeuner_sur_l'herbe_(Monet,_Paris)

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe
1865-66
Oil on canvas
248.9 × 218.0 cm 
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/le-dejeuner-sur-lherbe-25651

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Study
1865
Oil on canvas
130 x 181 cm
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
http://www.arts-museum.ru/data/fonds/europe_and_america/j/2001_3000/6075_Zavtrak_na_trave/index.php?lang=en

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)

Rejected by the jury of the 1863 Salon, Manet exhibited Le déjeuner sur l’herbe under the title Le Bain at the Salon des Refusés (initiated the same year by Napoléon III) where it became the principal attraction, generating both laughter and scandal.


Yet in Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, Manet was paying tribute to Europe's artistic heritage, borrowing his subject from the Concert champêtre – a painting by Titian attributed at the time to Giorgione (Louvre) – and taking his inspiration for the composition of the central group from the Marcantonio Raimondi engraving after Raphael's Judgement of Paris. But the classical references were counterbalanced by Manet's boldness. The presence of a nude woman among clothed men is justified neither by mythological nor allegorical precedents. This, and the contemporary dress, rendered the strange and almost unreal scene obscene in the eyes of the public of the day. 

Manet himself jokingly nicknamed his painting "la partie carrée".
In those days, Manet's style and treatment were considered as shocking as the subject itself. He made no transition between the light and dark elements of the picture, abandoning the usual subtle gradations in favour of brutal contrasts, thereby drawing reproaches for his "mania for seeing in blocks". And the characters seem to fit uncomfortably in the sketchy background of woods from which Manet has deliberately excluded both depth and perspective. 

Le déjeuner sur l'herbe - testimony to Manet's refusal to conform to convention and his initiation of a new freedom from traditional subjects and modes of representation - can perhaps be considered as the departure point for Modern Art.

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/le-dejeuner-sur-lherbe-904

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe
 

1863
Oil on canvas
207 x 265 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/le-dejeuner-sur-lherbe-904

 <b>Claude Monet </b>
(1840 - 1926)
 

Monet was in his early twenties when he painted this view across the breakwaters to the headland of La Hève, near Sainte-Adresse on the Normandy coast. He knew the area well, as he had spent his childhood in nearby Le Havre. The picture was probably made on the spot as a study for a larger studio painting, La Pointe de la Hève at Low Tide (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth) which he showed at the Paris Salon in 1865.

La Pointe de la Hève, Sainte-Adresse
1864 (24 years old)
Oil on canvas
41 x 73 cm. 
The National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-monet-la-pointe-de-la-heve-sainte-adresse
https://kimbellart.org/collection/ap-196807

Édouard Manet
(1832 - 1883)
 

Lola Melea, nicknamed Lola de Valence (Lola from Valencia), was the star of Mariano Camprubi's Spanish ballet troupe. From 12 August to 2 November 1862, the troupe performed at the Hippodrome in Paris, much to the delight of Manet and his friends Baudelaire and Zacharie Astruc. Manet persuaded the troupe to pose for him in the studio of Alfred Stevens, who had a large room at his disposal. This led to a small series of paintings and etchings, including The Spanish Ballet and Lola de Valence.
Originally, the dancer was depicted against a neutral background. Not long after an exhibition in 1867, Manet painted over the background, also enlarging the canvas. Now, the back of the set and a small part of a theatre with an audience can be seen. Because the performances in the hippodrome took place outdoors, this cannot represent the actual situation in 1862.

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_de_Valence

Lola de Valence
1862 (30 years old)
Oil on canvas
123 x 92 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/lola-de-valence-710

Claude Monet
(1840 - 1926)

Monet was 23 years old and, after attending Gleyre's classes in Paris and seeking inspiration in the footsteps of the Barbizon School painters, returned to Normandy in May 1864, where his family was staying. He thought he could find lodging and even invited Bazille to accompany him. But the trip actually ended in Honfleur. Bazille was due to return to Paris during the summer, and Monet extended his stay until autumn. At the Saint-Siméon farm, he met up with Jongkind and Boudin and fell into debt with the owner, Mère Toutain, who agreed to be paid according to the sales of her boarders. Monet therefore set to work, drawing inspiration from various locations in the town and its surroundings. But short of resources, he finally asked Bazille in November to help finance his return to Paris

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Rue_de_la_Bavolle_à_Honfleur

La Rue de la Bavolle à Honfleur
1864 (23 years old)
Oil on canvas
56 × 61 cm
MFA, Boston, US
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/33309

Monet made a second version, on another time of day. That painting is now in the Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany

https://www.kuma.art/en/exponat/la-rue-de-la-bavolle-honfleur