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[Reclining Odalisque]

Roger Fenton British
1858
Not on view
Fenton made a series of photographs inspired by the Victorian vogue for the exotic trappings of empire, modeled on the harem scenes and odalisques of Eugène Delacroix and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres that he had seen in Paris, and motivated by his desire to elevate the status of photography by tackling themes more frequently treated in painting.


"Reclining Odalisque" is among the quietest pictures in his series. There are no cowering slaves or leering sultans, no music or dancing, few stage props, no narrative tale. The odalisque is simply there, a vision floating in darkness: the exquisite embodiment of Victorian fascination with the exotic and the erotic. She lies languorously on dark pillows set on layers of carpet; she is barefoot but crowned with golden coins; she wears loose-fitting, patterned harem pants and a blouse fully unbuttoned to reveal a hint of bare breast below gossamer. She caresses an upturned goblet drum, a phallic darabukke inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and she looks at us from the shadows, subtly provocative in a way calculated to stir the Western imagination.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: [Reclining Odalisque]
  • Artist: Roger Fenton (British, 1819–1869)
  • Date: 1858
  • Medium: Salted paper print from glass negative
  • Dimensions: 28.5 x 39 cm (11 1/4 x 15 3/8 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: The Rubel Collection, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Anonymous, Joyce and Robert Menschel, Jennifer and Joseph Duke, and Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gifts, 1997
  • Object Number: 1997.382.34
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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Laughing Satyr, Roger Fenton British, Salted paper print from glass negative
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Birth of St. John, Roger Fenton British, Albumen silver print
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Roger Fenton
1857
The Temple. Collection of Antiquities, Roger Fenton British, Albumen silver print from glass negative
The Temple. Collection of Antiquities
Roger Fenton
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