The Grand Odalisque, Masterpiece by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
The Grand Odalisque, a masterpiece by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
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The Grand Odalisque is a painting by the French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, one of the main representatives of neoclassicism. When it was first exhibited to the public, it sparked outrage among critics, who ridiculed its radically attenuated modeling.
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In 1814, the artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was commissioned by Caroline, Napoleon's sister, to create a painting. She married the Marshal Joachim Murat, who became the king of Naples in 1808 and wanted the painting to match another one that Ingres had painted of a sleeping woman, so the artist created the Grand Odalisque.
The painting was presented at the Salon of 1819, and the judgments were not all positive, and in particular, the artist was criticized for not accurately describing the body's anatomy. Additionally, she should not be naked because odalisques are always dressed within the harem.
But the story holds a bizarre detail: the imperfections and inaccuracies that Ingres painted were all done intentionally, because the perfection of academic painting and a very precise color did not allow the painter to put on the canvas the inspired feeling of a curvilinear body.
If you look closely at the Grand Odalisque, her hips seem excessively wide and her right arm very long.
The painting depicts a woman lying on a bed covered with fabrics.
The entire scene is occupied by her body, and only the fan of feathers, the turban she wears on her head, and a few other details give us information about her origin from an Eastern country.
With this painting, Ingres invented a new genre, by transposing the mythological nude to the East, and preceded the exotic pictorial that would later be very successful in France.
A curious fact: Ingres is the last great artist of classical painting, and the Grand Odalisque, therefore, is a woman of the 19th century, a woman who is no longer subjugated, but is able to control her body and use it.
She is beautiful, has a confident gaze, and an attitude that women learn to adopt soon in that historical period of changes.
The perfection in the description of the details of the fabrics, jewelry, and objects surrounding her, compensate for the flaws in the anatomy so criticized, but that make this painting very sensual.
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