Provenance
Anonymous collection, Paris.[1] (Galerie Heinemann, Munich) from 1913; sold 1916 to Hans Wendland [b. 1880]. [2] (Dr. Gottlieb Friedrich Reber [1880-1959], Basel); sold to (Paul Rosenberg & Co., London, New York, and Paris); [3] sold 1928 to (Hugo Perls, New York); [4] from 1931 with (Paul Rosenberg & Co., London, New York and Paris); sold 1933 to Chester Dale [1882-1963], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1] Letter from Paul Rosenberg to Chester Dale, dated 31 March 1942, in which Rosenberg described having seen the picture in an apartment in Paris before 1914 (copy NGA curatorial files).
[2] Galerie Heinemann records, no. 12082 (copies NGA curatorial files).
[3] Letter from Paul Rosenberg to Chester Dale, dated 31 March 1942, in which Rosenberg explains that Reber was an intermediary for a German private collection. This is likely Wendland, who bought the painting in 1916. The painting is included in the list of Reber's collection compiled by Peter Kropmanns and Uwe Fleckner, "Von Kontinentaler Bedeutung: Gottlieb Freidrich Reber und seine Sammlungen," in _Die Moderne und ihre Sammler_ (Berlin, 2001), p 392, but was not lent by Reber to any known exhibitions of his collection.
[4] See letter from Hugo Perls dated 25 November 1968, in NGA curatorial files.
Accession Number
1963.10.207
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 69.2 x 122.6 cm (27 1/4 x 48 1/4 in.) | framed: 99 x 153.7 cm (39 x 60 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Chester Dale Collection
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Odalisque, painted in 1870, belongs to Renoir early period and demonstrates his engagement with the Orientalist tradition that was a major force in French painting. The painting depicts a reclining woman in exotic costume, her body arranged in the sinuous pose that was the convention of the odalisque subject since Ingres Grande Odalisque (1814).
Renoir painted this Odalisque before he had fully developed the Impressionist style that would define his mature career, and the painting reveals his early ambition: to join the academic tradition of the nude to the modern painting of light and color. The result is a hybrid work that combines the academic odalisque pose with a handling of paint and color that points toward Impressionism.
The painting most interesting feature is its conflict of intentions. Renoir wants to paint like Ingres - with smooth surfaces, precise drawing, and idealized form - but his natural gift for color and light keeps breaking through. The odalisque skin, rendered in warm, luminous flesh tones, and the fabric of her costume, painted in rich reds and blues, demonstrate the sensuous understanding of color that would become Renoir signature. The painting is a document of Renoir before Renoir - a painter in search of a style that had not yet been invented.
Cultural Impact
Renoir early Odalisque demonstrates that Impressionism grew from within the academic tradition, not against it. The painting hybrid quality - academic subject with proto-Impressionist handling - reveals the continuity of French painting and the evolutionary rather than revolutionary character of the Impressionist break with convention.
Why It Matters
This painting captures Renoir at the threshold: a young painter who has not yet found his style but who already possesses the two gifts that will define his mature art - a love of the human figure and an instinct for color that no academic training could suppress.
