Etude pour l’Odalisque à l’esclave 1838

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres made this drawing, an Etude pour l’Odalisque à l’esclave, without a precise date. It is a study for a painting, and it raises the question of the public role of art and the politics of imagery. The image creates meaning through its visual codes. Made in France, a former colonial power, it depicts the female nude in a manner that reproduces stereotypes of women from other cultures. It reflects the European fascination with the exotic "Orient", even though this was based on fantasy. Ingres was deeply involved in the French Academy, which taught his style of painting as the one true way. To understand this drawing, historians could research the records of the French Academy, the history of colonialism, and the study of gender. This will tell us more about how social conditions shaped its artistic production. Art's meaning is contingent on this social and institutional context.