The central figure of the odalisque (a concubine in a harem) represents Ingres’s reinterpretation of the Western classical tradition of the female nude in the modern context of the Middle Eastern “other.” Though Ingres had never traveled outside Europe, he became fascinated by writings about Turkish society, mixing details from travel writing with his own fantasies. Period critics admired the way Ingres depicted the skin of the three different figures, praising how “the variety and nature of the races has been understood and expressed by the artist.” One commentator sorted the figures by skin type, contrasting the “white favorite” prone at the center of the painting, the “young Abyssinian slave . . . tawny like bronze” playing music at her side, and the “black eunuch” in the background. With her languid, available pose and state of undress, the white odalisque is offered as the sexual prize for the presumed male proprietor of this lavish interior—and by proxy, the viewer.

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