Nymph Surprised by Edouard Manet Tissue Paper

Nymph Surprised by Edouard Manet, oil on canvas 1861, is a painting of a young woman bathing in a dark forest glade by a stream, turning in startled surprise towards the viewer. In this early work, Manet paints the scene in powerful contrasts of light and dark tones with flattened forms and minimal sculptural modelling, with an emphasis on outline contours of the subject. The subject evokes the subject matter of classical and Renaissance painting. The artist combines a strong influence of the Spanish masters and Rembrandt, who painted several similar compositions, with the painterly realism of Courbet to produce a startling and starkly realistic depiction.