Art Institute of Chicago

Odalisque

Jules Joseph Lefebvre (French, 1836–1912)

Date

1874

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

France

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

A luminous nude woman reclines in a dimly lit interior filled with fruits, textiles, and other luxury goods. To European audiences, this collection of objects would have broadly evoked the Middle East. The painting’s setting and title suggest that she is a courtesan in a harem. For 19th-century European artists, depicting the nude female form was a fundamental component of academic training and a benchmark of artistic excellence. The imagined harem setting—a space historically used as women’s quarters and forbidden to men—provided narrative context for the nude and appealed to the sexual and colonialist fantasies of European audiences.

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