France

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

La Grande Odalisque

1814

Oil on canvas, 91 × 162 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris

A nude harem woman lies on cushions and turns to look back over her shoulder. Its cool, exact surface makes it the calm opening to a part full of violent scenes.

• Made in Rome for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, and signed with the place name Rom; Paris saw it at the Salon of 1819.
• Look at the back and the right arm: both run longer than a real body would allow.
• The brushstrokes vanish under a smooth, enamel-like finish, the kind of surface the academies prized.
• The turban, peacock-feather fan and pipe dress the scene as a harem, but the harem is an invented one; Ingres never traveled to the East.
• The Louvre bought it in 1899.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (PD-Art)