3-098-630 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Odalisque, 1885. One of the basic elements of Orientalist painting was sensuality, reflected above all through imagined and literary harem settings, whose hidden beauties fuelled the imagination of Europeans. These representations ranged from exquisite to vulgar, with various types of harems appearing in Orientalist painting, but a common denominator was the depiction of the nude or semi-nude female figure, imbued with a strong sense of sensuality. The nude of an odalisque, with its harem connotations, must have been more appealing than a representation of the classical world. The deliberate sensuality of the nude is accentuated here by the exotic luxury surrounding it and the enveloping shadows, highlighting the exposed areas.