Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) by Édouard Manet was painted in 1863. When it was first displayed, the rough brushwork and undefined areas of color were as distressing to the public as the nude woman who was neither a classical goddess nor a symbol in an allegory. Manet claimed that the real subject of the painting was light, and it was that philosophy that gave birth to impressionism.