Grande Odalisque Analysis

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The Grande Odalisque is an oil painting from 1814 by Jean Ingres. The painting is of one of the most famous harem girls in the history of art. The girl is young, nude, and beautifully lounging in a luxurious environment with a turban on her head an a peacock feather fan in her hand. This painting is currently located at the Louvre Museum in Paris and can be found in any art history textbook. The word Odalisque in the title is a French term for a woman kept as a sex slave in a Turkish, Persian, or Arab harem. In lecture we are shown how this image has been borrowed and modernized for an advertisement in a 2005 magazine for a cosmetic lotion. The image is also of a young nude girl lounging and showing off her smooth shiny skin with a turban located on her head and a peacock feather fan in her hand. This ad now has a level of credibility or ethos added to it now that we know of its origin and this may help sell the product better. This image also comes with an ideology that can still appeal to people in the 21st century by giving us a belief that men want to have a harem and for …show more content…

One of her images in particular is the hand holding up a card that reads, " I Shop therefore I am." This message was meant to target large corporations and blind consumer sending, but in the 1990s this image became an icon. It was printed on shopping and tote bags which is very ironic considering the image was meant to oppose such things. However, these bags can be found in museum gift shops and some have become very valuable. The upscale Vincon Department Store in Barcelona, Spain had shopping bags with Barbara's image on them. And now one of these bags is on display in the Industrial Design gallery of the Victoria and another in the Albert Museum in