Edouard Manet’s Olympia required a police guard when it was exhibited in 1865 because visitors tried to attack it with umbrellas and canes. The painting — a nude prostitute staring directly at the viewer — provoked such fury that it became the most controversial artwork of the nineteenth century. Manet did not set out to scandalize; he set out to paint honestly, and honesty turned out to be the most provocative thing a painter could offer.

This episode traces Manet from his privileged Parisian childhood through Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, the Olympia scandal, and the paintings that bridged Realism and Impressionism without Manet ever accepting the Impressionist label.

• Manet’s bourgeois origins and the naval career his father wanted versus the painting career he chose
• Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe — the Salon des Refuses and the painting that outraged Paris
• Olympia’s armed guards — why a nude painting of a prostitute provoked physical violence
• Manet’s refusal to exhibit with the Impressionists despite being their greatest influence