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Odalisque

A work made of oil on canvas.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of oil on canvas.

Date:

1874

Artist:

Jules Joseph Lefebvre
French, 1836-1912

About this artwork

A luminous nude woman reclines in a dimly lit interior filled with textiles, fruits, and luxury goods evocative of the Arab world. 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 forbidden to men—provided narrative context for the nude and appealed to the sexual and colonialist fantasies of European audiences.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

Jules Joseph Lefebvre

Title

Odalisque

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1874

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Inscribed upper right: Jules. LeFebvre 1874.

Dimensions

102.4 × 200.7 cm (41 5/16 × 79 in.)

Credit Line

George F. Harding Collection

Reference Number

1983.381

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/100351/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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