A woman of a Turkish harem reclines with her back to us and glances coolly over her shoulder. Her back is impossibly long; critics said she had three vertebrae too many. Ingres used flawless Neoclassical line to paint the Oriental fantasy that fascinated the Romantics.
Key facts
- Artist
- Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres1780–1867 · French
- Date
- 1814
- Period
- Neoclassicism1760–1830
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 91 × 162 cm
- Location
- Musée du Louvre Paris, France
Actual size
Compared with an adult 170 cm tall
Palette
#0E0F12#243035#EAD29F#AC996D#685436Background
The word “odalisque” comes from Turkish and refers to a female attendant in an Ottoman harem. In the early nineteenth century Europeans had romantic fantasies about the “Orient”, and harem scenes were popular in painting and literature, though most artists had never been to the Middle East.
The painting was commissioned by Caroline Murat, Napoleon's sister and Queen of Naples. But soon after it was finished, Napoleon's empire collapsed and the Murats fell from power, so it was never delivered.
Shown at the Paris Salon of 1819, it was savaged by critics for its anatomical distortions and cold colour. Only decades later was it recognised as Ingres's masterpiece; the Louvre acquired it in 1899.
Technique & composition
Ingres outlined the body in flowing lines, forming a long, elegant curve. For the sake of line he deliberately lengthened the back and arm and altered the angle of pelvis and leg; medical studies have shown the pose is physically impossible.
The surface is porcelain-smooth, without a visible brushstroke, a Neoclassical hallmark. The soft modelling of skin contrasts with the finely rendered textures of and .
Cool blues and warm golds set each other off, and her skin glows against the dark background, recalling Raphael and the elongated figures of the Mannerist Parmigianino.
Details
Symbolism
An Orientalist fantasy
The turban, , the incense burner and the peacock fan were emblems of “Oriental luxury” in the European imagination. Scholars today point out that such pictures reflect Western desires and prejudices rather than real life in the Middle East.
The cool glance
The woman looks back at the viewer with a cool, detached gaze that does not invite ours. It gives the sensual image a certain distance.
Stories
- Did you know?
In 1989 the feminist collective Guerrilla Girls put a gorilla's head on the Grande Odalisque in a poster asking, “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?”, satirising gender inequality in the art world.
- Did you know?
A medical study estimated that, restored to real proportions, the woman's back contains two or three extra vertebrae.
- Did you know?
Ingres painted many more odalisques and bathers; The Turkish Bath, completed in his eighties, took the theme to its extreme.
Legacy
La Grande Odalisque shows that Ingres, though seen as the guardian of classicism, boldly distorted reality for the sake of beauty. This “distortion for expression” directly inspired Degas, Matisse and Picasso.
It is also a key work of Orientalist painting, and today serves as a central case in discussions of gender, colonialism and the power of the gaze in art.
