When you think of modern art, you might picture abstract shapes or wild colors—but it all started with someone who painted ordinary people in ordinary clothes, and got called a scandal. Édouard Manet, a French painter who challenged the art world in the 1860s by rejecting idealized myths and painting real life instead. Also known as the father of modern painting, he didn’t use smooth brushwork or perfect lighting—he used flat planes, bold shadows, and subjects that made the academy furious. His painting Olympia, showing a real woman staring back at the viewer, wasn’t just shocking—it was a declaration that art didn’t need to be pretty to be powerful.
Manet didn’t start the Impressionist movement, but he was the spark. Impressionism, a style focused on light, color, and quick brushstrokes to capture fleeting moments, grew from artists who followed his lead—Monet, Renoir, Degas. They didn’t paint history or religion. They painted cafés, streets, and boats. And they did it with the same raw honesty Manet used. He also influenced realist painting, a movement that showed everyday life without romanticizing it, which was already around, but he gave it a new energy. His brush didn’t hide imperfections. He didn’t smooth out wrinkles or pretend his subjects were noble. That’s why museums now treat his work like a turning point—not just a painting, but a shift in how we see art.
People still argue about Manet because he refused to play by the rules. He painted a man in a top hat at a bar like he was a king. He painted a corpse in a field like it was a scene from a newspaper. He didn’t care if critics called him lazy or crude. He cared if he made you look twice. That’s the same energy you’ll find in the posts below—art that makes you question what art is supposed to be. Whether it’s modern art that feels confusing, watercolor that needs layering, or digital art anyone can make, the thread is the same: art doesn’t need permission. It just needs truth. Below, you’ll find posts that dig into why modern art works the way it does, how artists push boundaries, and what it really means to create something that breaks the mold.
Édouard Manet is widely regarded as the godfather of modern art for breaking artistic conventions and painting everyday life with raw honesty, paving the way for Impressionism and all modern painting that followed.