Manet’s painting Luncheon on the Grass,like his Olympia,scandalized French critics and the public because of the way it was painted as well as the subject matter.  Manet painted the female figure without shading, employed flat patches of color throughout the painting, and even left bare canvas in some places.  He concentrates on the interplay among the elements of form that make up the composition: light shapes against dark, cool foreground colors that recede and warm background colors that come forward, diagonal and directional forces, and active balance.

        What is revolutionary in Manet’s work is his concern with visual issues over content or storytelling.  The absence of shading and the use of cool and warm colors thwart the tradition of depth perspective inaugurated in the Renaissance, and cause us to look at the surface of the painting rather than through an illusionary window onto nature.  Manet was attacked by the public and critis for his radical innovations, but by many artists he was championed as the leader of the avant-garde.