Edouard Manet

"One can hardly call it chaste to place a young lady under the trees, between two students in berets and frock-8coats, with no more than the shade of the foliage to clothe her.  Quite possibly an irrelevant point, however, it is not so much the composition itself but the intentions behind it which I deplore. ...Monsieur Manet aims to win fame by shocking the bourgeoisie... He has corrupted good taste through his love of the bizarre." -ERNEST CHESNEAU, 1864

Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe, 1863
Oil on canvas, 208 x 264 cm
Paris, Musee d'Orsay

Ernest Chesneau's observation and comment on Edouard Manet has me thinking.  If Manet, or other artists, didn't thrive on shock value, would art have stayed stagnant?  In my opinion, change is a wonderful thing.  The ability to shock someone is a gift, even if it's gratuitously disgusting to you.  Placing a thought in one's brain is simply the whole point of art, whether it be the subject matter or the mere aesthetics of the painting.  You look at a piece of work and you can wonder how they've done it, what they were thinking, why they were thinking of that and what they were feeling at the time of completion.  It baffles me that Ernest's comment was so harsh compared to how art is accepted in today's world.  In comparison, art now has more variety/acceptance/originality/depth.  Just as technology has changed, we've continued to grow and expand our minds.  Wonder what the years will bring us.