
The Grande Odalisque was painted by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres in 1814. An odalisque was often a maid, a slave, who could become one of the sultan's wives. The painters of the time represented scenes brought back from their stays in the Orient. Ingres, on the other hand, used only his imagination to paint his odalisque. He had never left France. Her abnormally long back is an anatomical error on the part of the painter, but it is also what will make the painting famous!