The Odalisque

Mariano Fortuny's The Odalisque (1861) shows a nude woman reclining on cushions within an Eastern interior, surrounded by a hookah, a low table, and jewellery such as a necklace, earrings and bracelets, while dark hair falls around her face. Painted in Rome during the artist's stay there as a scholarship holder, it did not follow the programme set by the Barcelona Provincial Council, which asked for academic figure studies, a copy of a classical painting and a historical scene from Catalan history. Fortuny nevertheless sent this work first, suggesting he took some liberty with the commission. Scholars generally link the shift toward Orientalism to his first visit to northern Morocco in 1860. The composition shares features with Ingres's well-known Grande Odalisque and, more closely, with Eduardo Rosales's Sleeping Woman, also painted in Rome in 1859. The picture is valued as an example of how Spanish artists in Italy began to adopt an Orientalist gaze.

Painter

Mariano Fortuny Marsal

Date

1861

Medium

oil paint, cardboard

Dimensions

57 × 81 cm

Museum

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

Movement

Orientalism

Genre

nude

Depicts

hookah, nudity, cushion, sitting, mons pubis, waist-length hair, table, pubic hair removal

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