La Grande Odalisque

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, 1814, Oil on canvas, Musee de Louvre, Paris, France

• Commissioned by sister of Napoleon; by the time it was complete, they were gone as a result of the revolution. 
• Caused a scandal; female nude, not Venus or Eve. 
• Odalisque is a woman in a harem. Muslim. 
• Western ideal of what a harem would be was completely inaccurate. 
• 19th century French construction of what they imagined that experience to be.
• France was colonising this part of the world. 
• Voluptuous and sensuous expression of the human body. 
• Ingres was a student of David; he came out of Neoclassicism and became a bridge to Romanticism. 
• Ignored rules of anatomy for sensuality: longer back, impossible leg positions. 
• Icy, aloof and distant look: not inviting. Distance and conflict.
•  Ingres actually returned to Neoclassicism after having first rejected the lessons of his teacher David. 
• He could even be said to have laid the foundation for the emotive expressiveness of Romanticism. 
• Instead, Ingres has created a cool aloof eroticism accentuated by its exotic context. The peacock fan, the turban, the enormous pearls, the hookah all refer us to the French conception of the Orient. 
• Conjured up not just a harem slave—itself a misconception—but a set of fears and desires linked to the long history of aggression between Christian Europe and Islamic Asia.
• Ingres exaggerates/distorts the proportions of the body to heighten the sensual nature of the naked form. 
• Turkish elements: incense burner, peacock fan
• Elongated back, one arm longer than the other
• Exaggerated body forms