Colonial encounter & empire

Featured Artworks

The Japanese Footbridge by Claude Monet

The Japanese Footbridge

Claude Monet (1899)

Claude Monet’s The Japanese Footbridge turns his Giverny garden into an <strong>immersive field of perception</strong>: a pale blue-green arc spans water crowded with lilies, while grasses and willows dissolve into vibrating greens. By eliminating the sky and anchoring the scene with the bridge, Monet makes <strong>reflection, passage, and time</strong> the picture’s true subjects <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.

Olympia by Édouard Manet

Olympia

Édouard Manet (1863 (Salon 1865))

A defiantly contemporary nude confronts the viewer with a steady gaze and a guarded pose, framed by crisp light and luxury trappings. In Olympia, <strong>Édouard Manet</strong> strips myth from the female nude to expose the <strong>modern economy of desire</strong>, power, and looking <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[3]</sup>.