Édouard Manet is one of the most significant artists of the 19th century. He was born in Paris in 1832. In 1850 he attended classes of the academic painter Thomas Couture in his studio. In the beginning his paintings were realistic, but soon he began to move away from the norms of academic painting. With the new way of painting that emphasised colour and surface of the image he caused a lot of criticism by the jury of Salon, and with the contemporary interpretation of old mythological and allegorical displays he provoked scandals among the audience accustomed to the academic painting. He criticised the 19th century Paris' roughness in many ways: by painting the modern city life, its beggars and strays, customs and moral hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie. Manet presented an ideal Baudelaire flâneur, who captures the modern city life and interprets it in a new way. With his technical innovations, contemporary themes and a modern view of reality he opened a way for new artistic movements and individual interpretation of art, which marked the Paris art of the second half of the 19th century.