Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres - The great odalisque

• Title: The great odalisque (La grande odalisque)
• Artist: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)
• Date: 1814
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 91 x 162 cm

“The Great Odalisque” depicts a reclining odalisque, a concubine, in a fantasy and lush Oriental harem setting in a highly sensuous pose. She is lying naked on a divan with her back to the viewer but with her head turned towards the viewer. Her pale skin is painted very delicately making it feel perfectly soft. She is holding a fan made of feathers which could be a pleasure toy.

Ingres is continuing the tradition initiated by Titian’s "Venus of Urbino" (1534) of a female nude resting on an unmade bed, covering herself more or less languidly, while turning her gaze to the viewer in a confident way. But whereas with Titian Venus's nude body was fully exposed, it is not the case with Ingres. In that respect, Diego Velazquez is a precursor with "The toilet of Venus" (1644) whose body is nude but turned around and who gazes at the viewer through the reflection of a mirror.

This painting also reveals influences from Mannerists such as Parmigianino (cf p.70) with distorted proportions (small head, elongated back and limbs, unrealistic curve of the left leg) and a cool color scheme.

“The Great Odalisque” is also one of the most famous “Orientalist” paintings, which was an art movement initiated following Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition of 1798 which stimulated public interest in both in fantastic and in realistic representations of the Oriental world. For Ingres, the painting marks a departure from Neoclassicism to a mixed style with exotic Romanticism.