The Odalisque II 1862

Editor: We’re looking at Mariano Fortuny's “The Odalisque II” from 1862. It’s an oil painting featuring a nude woman, and it immediately strikes me as both sensual and melancholy. There's a stillness about her pose... a reflective quality, perhaps. What draws your eye when you look at this painting? Curator: Ah, yes. The odalisque, a staple in orientalist fantasies, isn’t she? Fortuny, ever the magpie, dips his brush into that shimmering, troubled well. Forget the cliché for a moment; look at that mirror. The woman isn't just gazing outward, but inward, multiplied, questioned. Almost like peering into different versions of herself. What do you think she sees? Editor: Perhaps a different version of beauty? One that meets societal standards? Curator: Or perhaps a challenge to them? The “real” woman versus her reflection. The cool, shadowed tones behind her contrasting the warmth of her skin. It is very consciously baroque in terms of drama and Academic in terms of finish. Think about this work's audience. Who was meant to gaze upon her languid pose? Editor: Well, likely wealthy male patrons of the time, continuing that long tradition of the male gaze in art, I suppose? Curator: Exactly. So Fortuny offers a kind of opulent staging, but also… that mirror throws everything into a slightly disturbing loop. The voyeur is also being watched, observed observing! Are we still enjoying the same uncomplicated pleasure? Editor: That’s a really interesting way to frame it. It certainly takes the familiar odalisque theme into a more complex space. I’ll definitely look at similar pieces with that new lens in mind! Curator: Good! Art is like a good maze, all mirrors and unexpected turns. It challenges you and the maker to examine how complicit we may be when viewing. Now I wonder, if that woman in the mirror could talk, what stories she’d whisper to us?