Portret van een vrouw op een canapé, vermoedelijk een odalisk 1880 - 1910

This photograph, “Portret van een vrouw op een canapé, vermoedelijk een odalisk”, was created by Jean Geiser sometime during his career, which stretched from the late 19th to the early 20th century. It offers a window into the Western fascination with the “Orient.” The image depicts a woman reclining on a divan, styled as an odalisque, a term for female slaves in the Ottoman seraglio, or harem. During the 19th century, depictions of odalisques became a recurring theme in European painting and photography, often exoticizing and eroticizing women from the Middle East and North Africa. These representations were frequently created from a male, Western perspective. The construction of the setting, with its Moorish architectural details, alongside the model’s costume, are steeped in orientalist tropes. Consider what this image says about cultural exchange, and the Western gaze, during a time of increasing colonial expansion and the power dynamics inherent in these exchanges. The photograph serves as a reminder of the complexities of representation.