Young Ladies on the Bank of the Seine

Courbet exhibited a larger version of this composition at the Paris Salon of 1857. A number of studies for the Salon painting survive, among which this work (now in the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris) is generally included. The exhibition at the Salon provoked a scandal based mainly on Courbet's presentation where he undermined the traditionally accepted portrayal of women within a natural setting. The obvious and deliberate modernity of his city girls with the foreground figure's display of her undergarments and knowing gaze make her a more shocking subject than if she were depicted nude.