Lithograph, 1825. 130x210 mm; 5 1/8x7 1/4 inches, full margins. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph.
Now an exalted centerpiece of the French 19th century collection at the Louvre, Paris, Ingres' (1780-1867) Odalisque (or La Grande Odalisque) created a scandal when the painting was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1819. Critics lambasted Ingres for his rebellious lack of realism and the elongated proportions of the figure. While likely deliberate distortions on the part of Ingres, the figure was shown to have several too many vertebrae and was drawn with a curvature of the spine and rotation of the pelvis impossible to replicate in life.
The painting was commissioned from Ingres by Napoleon's sister, Queen Caroline Murat of Naples, and completed in 1814. This lithograph, one of fewer than ten different lithographs created by Ingres, was published shortly after the painting had been widely exhibited in order to further promote the scandalous image at the time. Delteil 9.
