Grande Odalisque

Grande Odalisque, painted by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in 1814, shows a nude woman reclining on a divan in an exotic interior. The word odalisque refers to a concubine of the harem, and the painting presents her in a languid pose, seen from behind, with her head turned toward the viewer. Among the accessories that give the scene its Eastern flavour are a fan, a turban and veils, whose fabrics are rendered with remarkable precision.

The composition rests on line. The body traces a serpentine curve that borders on the impossible: the back stretches and the limbs appear longer than anatomy would allow. Ingres seems to have known this and accepted it as a deliberate device, blending several models in search of an idealised beauty rather than a realistic body. This distortion links the work to Mannerism, while the softness of the face and the rhythm of the curves recall Raphael, whose paintings Ingres had studied during his time in Florence.

The picture was conceived as a pendant to another, now lost, nude seen from the front. It was commissioned by Caroline Murat, Napoleon's sister and queen of Naples. First shown at the Paris Salon of 1819, it drew sharp criticism for its proportions and for a palette that some judged faint and monotonous. Today it belongs to the Louvre. Far from being careless, the blue of the curtains, set against red, white and gold, gives the canvas a carefully wrought refinement.

Its importance lies in the shock it caused. To contemporaries, Ingres seemed to break away from Neoclassicism towards a Romantic exoticism, mixing classical form with sensual subject matter. That tension between order and fantasy has kept the painting a touchstone, and later artists, from pop art to feminist collectives, have returned to it again and again.

Painter

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Date

1814

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

91 × 162 cm

Museum

Louvre Museum, Paris

Genre

nude

Depicts

cushion, unidentified woman, back, waist-length hair, dimples of Venus, toe, hand fan, gaze towards the viewer

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