Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867)
Odalisque and Slave, 1839
Graphite, black and white chalk, gray and brown wash
Signed, inscribed, and dated in graphite at lower left, J. INGRES / ROM. 1839.
13 3/16 x 18 1/4 inches (335 x 462 mm)
Thaw Collection
Deeply disappointed by the relative failure of his
Martyrdom of St. Symphorien at the Salon of 1834,
Ingres, according to his pupil Henry Lapauze,
"renounced work for the government and Salons,
to work no more except . . . for friends." The present
sheet is a near replica of the painting commissioned
by Charles Marcotte d'Argenteuil in 1839, currently
in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge. This masterful
drawing summarizes the exotic tales of Arabia that
had captured the imagination of early-nineteenth-century Paris. While the artist pictured a suggestively
exposed odalisque, a musician playing a tambour,
and a eunuch standing guard, a fourth and possibly
fifth figure are implied. A spectator sits upon the
divan, perhaps alongside a sultan who has just
finished smoking his hookah.
While Ingres intended the drawing to be
an independent work, the painstaking technique
evident in such details as the mosaics in the background
or the long silky tresses of the reclining
nude suggest that it may have served as a model
for an engraving.
