Youssef Youssef
Thinking through images
ODALISQUE
La grande odalisque, Ingres. 1814
The Odalisque had fed the Western imagination since the eighteenth century, to the point of making a major component of the Orientalist movement in the nineteenth century. The archetype of Oriental woman has always fascinated and fuelled Western fantasy. However, she is subject to several paradoxes, on one hand she represents sensuality, roguery, sweetness, pleasure, palaces or delight. On another hand she represents a slaved woman, imprisoned in a harem, which is much less glamorous. The word Odalisque comes from the Turkish word Odsalik which means “room woman” Oda means room. Actually she was a woman of harem who served sultan’s women in the Ottoman Empire. She was hierarchically lower than other women indeed. In the Western representations of odalisque, the absolute model is undoubtedly La Grande odalisque of Ingres (Image 1). This painting was made in 1814 for Caroline Murat, sister of Napoleon the first, and it’s related to the orientalist current. What is striking at first glance is the anatomical deformation of this reclining woman. Actually, her back is too long, she has three additional vertebrae, and her left leg is positioned on an unnatural way (Jean Jacques Lévêque, 1994). The painter wanted these deformations, and actually it’s forming part of its own style. Ingres didn’t focus on giving realistic depictions of nude; he wanted to present things through his own point of view and according to his imagination. The most relevant part of this work is the fact that it offers us a European vision of the fantasized Orient. We have here a nude odalisque seen from behind; she is couching in bed in a lascivious way and looking back towards the spectator. We can notice that there is a direct eye contact with the observer, but despite this, her look is distant which makes the image bewitching. The sensuality of the interior has to be also considered, because it is typical of the orientalist art. The decor is part of a dreamlike and voluptuous oriental world; it’s composed by luxurious objects and beautiful fabrics, such blue velvet. This odalisque is painted as the archetype of the European women of this time, however the sensuality of the image shows a western idea of the oriental women. This sensuality is meant; it wanted to represent the oriental people as uncivilised and without moral comparing to western people.
Illustration from Recueil Ferriol. 1712-1715
To deepen the topic we should take a look to the source of this enthusiasm for the Orient. Even if the Orient has fascinated the West in the Renaissance, the begging of the craze for the “East” began with the translation of the Arabian Nights; in France it took place in 1704 thanks to Antoine Gallant and had a great success. The figure of the odalisque, which appears several times in these tales, began to fascinate and feed the western’s imaginary. In France this craze has been supported by the Rueuil Ferriol (1712-1715), this collection of engravings was made to describe modes and customs of Ottomans. The description and the illustrations were much more realistic than the orientalist current. It’s more a travel description than a representation of a fantasy. The image 2, shows us one of Ruceuil Ferriol’s illustrations, here we have a Turkish woman lying in a sofa after a bath, as it is written on the image. It’s a representation of a woman in a harem, however it is not as sensual as the orientalists painting. Nevertheless, Ferriol described Ottomans manners as quite different from the west, and women’s conditions were quite critical. They were jealously locked, enslaved, and that somehow they were almost all slaves of the Sultana, he said Ottoman "princes are children of slaves” (Elise Colin-Madan, 2013).
The Blonde odalisque.Francois Boucher, 1751
Once the Orient became real fashion, and in the 18th century the theme of the Orient appeared increasingly in paintings and literature. Per instance The Persian letters of Montesquieu (1721), was giving great descriptions of the harems and the odalisque’s conditions. The orient would inspire a lot of currents and especially the libertine one. Therefore the odalisque will take the face of the courtesan, and the Sultan that of the king. The Blonde Odalisque (1751) of François Boucher (image 3) offers us a great example. She is actually named Miss O’Murphy and she was Louis XV mistress. She was precisely one of his “ petite maitresse”, it means that she was not presented to the court as the official mistresses and did not have an apartment in the castle. That is interesting because it could be linked to the odalisque’s conditions and how she was positioned in the hierarchy, both are lower than other women, it’s somehow what make their uniqueness and mystery. The blonde odalisque is represented in the same staging as Venus and the classical orientalist odalisques, lying naked on a sofa in a nonchalant way. She is alone in a kind of hidden room, as if she is waiting for her lover. However at this time The orientalist current hadn’t started yet, The libertine current was somehow using the oriental sensuality to illustrate western mores (Elise Colin-Madan, 2013), the colonialist rhetoric was not really considerate.
The snake charmer, Jean Leon Gérôme. 1886
In the 19th century the craze for the Orient will know its apogee, to understand this fascination one ought to put it on its political context. The geographical imaginary of the East goes hand in hand with a scientific and political fantasy (Peter Wollen, 1993). Peter Wollen (1993) by taking the ideas of Edward Said in Orientalism (1978) explains us that the Orient was:
“A field of free play for shamelessly paranoid constructions, dreamlike elaborations of a succession of Western Traumas. In the nineteenth century, the Orient became more and more the site for erotic as well as political projection.”
Actually, in a context of the second wave of colonization, that took place partly in North Africa and the Middle East, mainly driven by France and Great Britain, adding to this the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt, the Orient has began to exercise a peculiar sway over the western imagination (Peter Wollen, 1993). Even if at a first glance orientalist representations are quite pleasant, the narrative behind them is far from seductive; it was anchored in a colonial narrative. Eastern people were represented as uncivilized, deviant immoral, to justify the colonization, the west has the duty to colonise them and civilise them (Edward Said, 1978). Even if it’s not an odalisque or a representation of an oriental woman, we have chosen Jean Leon Gérôme’s painting The snake charmer (1886) (Image 4), because it is one of the most striking image that shows the western imperialist vision of the east. We have here a blue and silver wall adorned by Islamic tiles and arabesques and front of it a group of old man sitting on the ground and watching a nude young boy snake charmer « draped with a slithering phallic python » (Jonathan Jones, 2012). This painting is extremely violent in its sexual component and quite indicative of the Western vision of eastern people. Per instance the fact that the wall is beautifully adorned indicates that it was a great civilization, however the fact that it damaged shows that unfortunately this civilisation forfeits. We have here a voyeurism scene, the fact that the young man is nude and watched by old men, is quite disturbing, and shows the deviant behaviour, bizarre sexuality and perversity of eastern people. Their manners are too deviants and transgressive compared to the western virtuosity.
L’odalisque, Edmond Comte de Grimberghe. 1886
To comeback to our odalisque, L'Odalisque (1886) of Edmond Comte de Grimberghe (image 5) appears to be quite interesting to analyse. It has a less glamorous dimension than other odalisque painting; it shows the slavery conditions of theses harem’s women, and the issue of the visibility of confinement is quite outspoken. Here we have a woman, locked in a sort of room, lying bare breasted, looking out passively, her gaze interpellates directly the public. Behind her, there is her servant and we can understand the place where she is in as a harem; the bars refers to imprisonment which describe the harem as a place of female seclusion. Therefore the harem represents the captivity and the cloister where women are captivated to be sexual objects, which shows the perversity of oriental people. Another element that is interesting on this painting is the fact that she is seen from the outside bare breasted is quite disturbing, because firstly women of harems were completely hidden, so this painting is not representative of the reality. Secondly, her posture of a prostitute waiting for a customer, gives an image of the oriental woman as an easy and sensual woman.
Denise Poiret, Geisler and Bauman.1913
The orientalist craze has also inspired the fashion world, on of the greatest example of oriental influence in fashion is undoubtedly the renowned designer Paul Poiret. In 1911 he followed the Directoire with his first Oriental Look, and gave a Thousand and Second Night party to celebrate that (Peter Wollen, 1993). When we take a look on the description of the party, the decor and the staging were a direct reference to an orientalist painting.
“ Poiret himself was dressed as a sultan, lounging on cushions under a canopy, wearing a fur-edged caftan. A white silk turban…nearby was a huge golden cage in which his wife, Denise Poiret, his favourite, was confined with her women attendants. When t all the guests were assembled, dressed in costumes from tales of Orient…Elsewhere there were always, black slaves…there were bands of musicians playing Eastern music, illuminated fountains, incense-burning braziers, an almost incredible excess and extravagance. ” (Peter Wollen, 1993).
It seems like the oriental theme is always composed on the same way, a luxurious decor and frivolous people. The pantomime of slavery, which the party was revolved around (Peter Wollen, 1993), is quite relevant of the western’s vision of the east. To reproduce an oriental scene, Poiret has staged a set where people should acted like eastern people, practising slavery, being misogynist, in sum: barbaric. This party accurately summarizes the Western fantasized vision of the fabled East. Above (image 6) we have Denis Poiret, Poret’s wife, photographed in Hotel plaza New York in 1913 by Geisler and Bauman. It’s quite interesting to see how is her posture; she is lying in a sofa as an odalisque and wearing a turban. The decoration is sumptuous; the fabrics are well adorned by oriental illustrations. What is relevant in odalisque’s paintings, is the focus on the uniqueness of the woman and her presence. Choosing to be photographed with an odalisque posture is giving to Denise Poiret a certain uniqueness and magnificence. Actually, she was Poiret’s muse and favourite model, in 1913 during an interview with vogue he said: "My wife is an inspiration for all my creations, she is an expression of all by ideals.” However the picture also shows the orientalist inspirations of Poiret. This inspiration has also affect its design; with his Oriental look he influenced the fashion world and decorative arts (Peter Wollen, 1993).
Scheherazade, George Barbier.1913
However Sergei Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet were the precursor of this craze in the fashion world, and actually even if Poiret always denied it, it had influenced him a lot. Actually, in 1910 “the huge success of Diaghilev’s Scheherazade in Paris that same year was a precondition for the effect of Poret’s Oriental fashion” (Peter Wollen, 1993). A part of the beautiful orientalist costumes used in the ballets, it would be interesting to take a look at the spectacle of Scheherazade and its component.
“In Act 1, the Shah, refusing the entreaties of his favourite, Zobeida, and the attractions of the three odalisques, leaves on a hunting expedition. In Act 2 the women of the harem adorn themselves with jewels and bribe the eunuchs to admit black slaves (wearing rose and green costumes and covered with body paint). Finally Zobeida bids the Chief Eunuch open a third do to release the Golden Slave (played in Paris by Nijinsky). Dancing girls inspire passion and the scene turns into an orgy, all whirling and springing in a frenzied dance. In Act 3 the shah returns and janissaries with flashing scimitars massacre the women and the slaves. The Golden Slave is the last to die, spinning on his head like a break-dancer. Finally, as the Shah hesitates to kill his favourite, she commits suicide. The shah buries his face in his hand.” (Peter Wollen, 1993)
The Oriental despotism is quite obvious here; the representation of the East and its people is quite disgraceful. It’s a world of slavery, debauchery, weird sexuality, promiscuity, patriarchy and barbaric. Nijinsky’s lack of masculinity when he played the golden slave is to be considered in the oriental imaginary. Representing eastern men as passionate and effeminate wasn’t harmless. The oriental man was described as a sodomite and cruel, in opposition to the western man who was manly and fair. Image 7 shows us the scene with the golden slave and Zobeida. She is lying on the ground bare breasted and the slave is touching her. It’s an illustration from Designs on the Dances of Vaslav Nijinsky a series of prints presenting all Nijinsky’s major roles published 1913 and done by George Barbier. This illustration evokes the decadence and sensuality of Scheherazade’s ballet.
Odalisque with red pants, Matisse.1921
It seems important to talk about Matisse when it comes to orientalist Art, as Peter Wollen (1993) said: “ The Russian Ballet launched the New Orientalism, Poiret popularized it, Matisse channelled it into painting and fine art”. Here we have its Odalisque with red pants, 1921 (image 8). In 1913, Henri Matisse spent several months in Morocco, where he could find inspirations; he said, “ My revelation came from the Orient”. In 1917 he moved to Nice and started a series of paintings on the theme of the odalisque. He was quite influenced by the colours, shapes and designs of the oriental culture. “He painted Oriental signified with Oriental signifiers, in a style adapted from Islamic art as seen through Western eyes” (Peter Wollen, 1993). He was focusing on the colours, forms and lines, instead of painting through an ideology. He wasn’t interested in excess or showing lavishness, his work was expressing forms and compositions, when we look at the Odalisque with red pants, it’s less provocative than other orientalist paintings, even if it represents a nude women, the erotic component is not the most striking element. The plasticity of the body and its structure join the sculpture, the colours and the lines offers us a perfect harmony.
Odalisque, Nan Goldin. 2010
All along the twentieth century and until nowadays, The Odalisque seems to have became a pictorial genre in itself, and even a must for artists of any kinds. Picasso, Botero, Man Ray and others had produced works in the name of "Odalisque". The erotic, sensual, unique aspect of this languid character has inspired many artists. Nan Goldin in 2011, created her own representation of the Odalisque (image 8), it is forming part of her photographic series Scopophilia which begun in 2010. Her odalisque is a kind of collage of several pictures, photographs of women that she took and photographs of renowned paintings, “a kind of “resonant dialogue between human histories past and present” (Sevreine Morel, 2013). This work has been done during her sojourn in the Louvre Museum in 2010;actually she had a private access to the museum. Scopophilia refers “to the erotic pleasure derived from gazing at images of the body” (Sevreine Morel, 2013). Here the Orientalist dimension is non-existent, although we can say that we are in a post-colonial policy context, Nan Goldin by using the figure of the odalisque does not refer directly to the oriental woman. Here the emphasis is on the body and eroticism. When we look at the women that she photographed, we note that the Oriental decor is completely absent. The odalisque is used here as a metaphor for eroticism, uniqueness and fragility.
Bulgari campaign, Mert and Marcus. Spring/Summer 2010
In the Spring/Summer 2010 Bulgari campaign, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
photographed Julianne Moore as an oriental odalisque (Image 10). The picture is directly inspired by Odalisque (1873) of the Italian painter Francesco Paolo. The decor here is completely oriental, the colours, the fabrics, the exotic bird, all the scene refers to a dreamlike East. However, comparing to the Francesco’s painting the context is completely different. Here, it’s a campaign, and the goal is to sell a luxurious product. The oriental component is used here to refer to beauty, luxury, to dream, to travel; we want to give Bulgari’s object a dreamlike dimension. Julian Moor is adorned with jewels, lying naked on a kind of sofa, as an odalisque. However, we are not in an Orientalist context, the image has not the same effect on people as orientalist representations. Nowadays the western vision of the East has somehow changed, when we see this ad we are not thinking about slavery, issues of power or looking at a foreign sexual practices. The nude no longer shocks in the West. Previously showing naked oriental women was making the statement that these women have lack of modesty, and therefore installing rhetoric of an "us" and a "them". Here, it is not the case at all; the nude is only supporting the beauty of the atmosphere. The odalisque is used as a metaphor for beauty, sensuality, luxury, wealth and elegance.
Bibliography
- BRODIER J-P., L’odalisque ou la représentation de la femme imaginaire, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2005.
- COLIN-MADAN Elise. Les représentations contemporaines de harem et d’odalisque : ambiguïté de l’image entre pouvoir et subordination. Art and art history. 2013.
- MOREL Sevrine. Nan Goldin, socpophilia. The eye of photgraphy. 2013.
- SAID Edward W., L’Orientalisme. L’Orient créé l’Occident, Paris, Seuil, 2003.
- WOLLEN Peter, Raiding the Icebox: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Culture. Indiana University Press. 1993.