Manet: The Picnic and the Prostitute

Manet's two paintings Le Bain and Olympe opened up a new phase of modern art. Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon closed that phase while opening yet another onto the twentieth century. Having dealt at length with Picasso's seminal picture in his book, Picasso's brothel, in this book Andersen takes up Manet's two most original paintings: one depicting a picnic, the other a prostitute, finding links between them beyond the fact that a single model, Victorine Meurent, posed for both pictures.