Olympia by Édouard Manet

This painting of a nude woman was seen as scandalous when it was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1865. What caused the shock was not the nude female, which had been a frequent subject throughout the history of art already, but the particular details of the painting. The small black ribbon, the orchid in the hair and jewellery suggested that Olympia, as the title suggests her name is, was a prostitute. Additionally Olympia was a name associated with prostitutes in 1860's Paris.