Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres: Odalisque with Slave (1842)

(Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA)

A classic orientalist painting from the 19th century. An odalisque was a female slave in an harem. She would serve the concubines and wives of the sultan in the harem. Is she was very beautifull or was a good dancer or singer, she could be trained as a concubine and has the posibility to become a wive of the sultan. In Western art the term odalisque was used for a reclining, often nude, Eastern woman. Painting from 1842.