french first empireconcept:era modern
La Grande Odalisque
Oil on canvas (1814) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. A reclining nude concubine viewed from behind, elongated beyond anatomical accuracy, with an Orientalist setting of peacock fan and incense burner. Criticised at the 1819 Salon; now canonical. Held at the Louvre Museum.
Scholarly Significance
Anchor Ingres's Orientalist Neoclassicism and the critical reception debate over anatomical distortion versus aesthetic idealisation.
Notes
- ·Commissioned by Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples (Napoleon's sister), but never delivered to her due to political upheaval.
- ·Exhibited at the Salon of 1819; the hostile reception delayed Ingres's career.
- ·The figure's spine has been calculated to contain three extra vertebrae — a deliberate distortion to achieve the desired curvilinear silhouette.
- ·Purchased by the Louvre in 1899 from an heir of Ingres's estate.