Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1814). Large Odalisque [oil on canvas]. Mesee du Louvre, Paris.

This work builds an impression of disquiet. The figure’s flesh and the sumptuousness around her give it an edge of the fantastic. The purpose behind this “bending” of optical reality is to make the artist’s commentary easier to glean. This would be a conceptual work if not for Ingres’ masterful skill in subtlety. One of the questions I cannot answer is whether the impact of this work is meant to be felt in the mind of the observer or released from his.

Ingres’ use of color approaches subjective to the same degree as Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights. The color scheme is “bent”, disharmony a result of the bend, between infinitesimally warmed blues and golden oranges. Given that blue is dominant, the orange should be more neutral in temperature. The relative chroma between the figure’s form and her surroundings aligns in tone with the color disharmony. This interaction of color, the relative indistinctness of her form and the distortion of her bodily proportions relate an inaccessible quality to the figures’ emotional state on the part of the observer, who takes on the role of client.

Value is also used to create a mood and tension. It is primarily responsible for the richness of the furnishings which define most of the figure, which draws attention to the oddly cool and under developed modelling of her skin. Much of her upper body is defined by a jarringly-stark contrast between the pitch behind her and her comparative lightness. The conceptual message is more important than any one area of the canvas. Ingress uses fluid, sloping directional forces originating in the far-right drapery through the contours of the figure’s body to end on her face, which is casually glancing over her shoulder to the observer.

The mood of this work is built through conflict-generating equivalencies, especially regarding color. This would not be possible without the unheralded foundation of harmonies Ingres builds with the consistent manner he defines edges, the textural richness he uses and an overall feminine tone. One of the conflicts I believe Ingres is attempting to inspire is to develop a youthful and attractive woman into a figure that is simultaneously lacking in the sensuality she inspires. The great accomplishment of this masterpiece is infusing it with this tension through formal choices instead of more literal methods.