Grande Odalisque, also known as Une Odalisque or La Grande Odalisque, is an oil painting of 1814 by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres depicting an odalisque, or concubine. Ingres' contemporaries considered the work to signify Ingres' break from Neoclassicism, indicating a shift toward exotic Romanticism.
Grande Odalisque attracted wide criticism when it was first shown. It is renowned for its elongated proportions and lack of anatomical realism. The work is owned by the Louvre Museum, Paris which purchased the work in 1899.
Grande Odalisque provides examples of:
- Art Imitates Art: Much like various other historical examples of the Reclining Venus, Ingres admitted that his primary inspiration for Grande Odalisque was the Dresden Venus and the Venus Of Urbino.
- Artistic License – Anatomy: Various art critics have pointed out that by the woman's design, she has five more vertebrae in her back than any real human woman would have.
- Boobs-and-Butt Pose: Thanks to Artistic License – Anatomy, it's possible to appreciate the woman's breasts despite her having her back turned to the viewer.
- But Not Too Foreign: The painting's subject (ostensibly a Turkish woman) wears a distinctly Middle Eastern headscarf, but is also fair-skinned enough to pass for white. For contemporary audiences, this likely would have made her seem just "foreign" enough to be charmingly exotic without being threatening.
- Dated History: Ingres, like various of his contemporaries, was enraptured by the idea of hundreds of beautiful young concubines or "odalisques" loitering around in various states of undress, fawned on by cringing slaves and guarded by eunuchs, all existing solely for the pleasure of the Sultan. Hence, this painting. However, a Real Life Turkish Royal Harem was made of the Sultan's older, female relatives and some concubines who, for the most part, went unbothered because non-castrated men were forbidden from entering the place.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: The hookah, peacock fan, and bejeweled turban were all added to the picture to create a cultural distance, making the figure seem Turkish instead of French and thus lessening the scandal of the nude figure.
- It's Not Porn, It's Art: Much like The Nude Maja, the painting drew up a lot of controversy in the fact that the nude figure is looking straight at the viewer, giving the nudity a lack of the sacred detachment that foreign and mythological nudes had.
- Only Known By Her Nickname: The woman's name is never given, not even in the painting's title. She's simply referred to as the Grande Odalisque.
- Protagonist Title: The painting's subject is a concubine of a Turkish harem, aka an odalisque.
- Reclining Venus: It depicts a nude female model looking toward the viewer over her shoulder wearing a bonnet and holding a peacock feather duster in her hand. It also stands out because it leaves more to the imagination by showing the model with her back turned to the viewer.
- Royal Harem: The implied setting of the painting; the subject is based on the then-contemporary romanticized image of Turkish harems.
- Scenery Censor: Downplayed. The subject's pose is relatively modest in spite of her nudity, but the sheets on the bed are piled just high enough to obscure most of her backside.
