<P> Courbet later insisted he never lied in his paintings, and his realism pushed the limits of what was considered presentable . With L'Origine du monde, he has made even more explicit the eroticism of Manet's Olympia . Maxime Du Camp, in a harsh tirade, reported his visit to the work's purchaser, and his sight of a painting "giving realism's last word". </P> <P> By the very nature of its realistic, graphic nudity, the painting still has the power to shock and triggers censorship (see below). </P> <P> The explicitness of the picture may have served as an inspiration, albeit with a satirical twist, for Marcel Duchamp's last major work, Étant donnés (1946--1966), a construction also featuring the image of a woman lying on her back with her legs spread . </P> <P> In 1989, French artist Orlan created the cibachrome L'origine de la guerre (The Origin of War), a male version of L'origine du monde showing a penile erection . </P>

L'origine du monde (the origin of the world