Odalisque

Artist Edouard Manet (French, 1832 - 1883)

Date1868

MediumAquatint and etching

DimensionsImage: 5 3/16 × 7 7/8 inches (13.18 × 20 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number32-209/9

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 1952.

Exhibition, Albrecht Art Gallery, St. Joseph, MO, September 18-October 19, 1966.

Gallery Label

Odalisques, or female slaves in the harems of the Middle East, were figures of fantasy in Western imagination. Contemporary audiences would have associated Manet’s Odalisque reclining on a bed with prostitution, a popular subject among painters in this period because it embodied what they saw as the seedy quality of modern life. Upper-class men often sought out services from prostitutes who were typically from a lower class. These transactions fostered the mixing of groups in an economically stratified society. For those with class-related anxiety, Manet’s Odalisque coldly stared back.

Provenance

With E. Weyhe, Inc., New York, by January 1, 1932;

Purchased from Weyhe by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kanas City, MO, 1932.

Published References

Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Manet, graveur et lithographe (Paris: Loys Delteil, 1906), no. 20.

Marcel Guérin, L'Œuvre gravé de Manet (Paris: Floury, 1944; repr. New York: Da Capo Press, 1969), no. 64.

Jean C. Harris, Edouard Manet: Graphic Works; a definitive catalogue raisonné (New York: Collectors Editions, 1970), no. 56.

George L. McKenna, Prints, 1460-1995: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 293, (repro.), as Odalisque.

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