The Odalisque
1885. Oil on canvas.Not on display
Sensuality is one of the elemental qualities of Orientalist painting, especially of depictions of the literary harem settings, whose purported hidden beauties provoked riot in the imagination of Westerners. Such pieces ranged from the exquisite to the vulgar, hence the various types of harem that can be distinguished in Orientalist paintings. The intensely sensual depiction of the nude or semi-nude female figure is the common (though not a universal) feature The nude odalisque, given all her associations with the imagined world of the harem, must have made for a more immediately attractive subject, than the nudes common in depictions of the classical world. This example of the genre by Álvarez Dumont, due to its realistic treatment, appears somewhat vulgar in comparison with the greater classical elegance and Titianesque echoes of Martínez Pozo´s, without being as suggestive as the latter. The sensuality sought of the nude is achieved by the exotic luxury that surrounds her and the penumbra that envelops her, emphasising the exposed portions of her body.
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E., Pintura Orientalista Española 1830-1930, Madrid, Banco Exterior, 1988, p.102-103
