Unknown

Rococò Italian painter - 18th/19th century figure painting - Nude female

c.1780

French Master (18th century) - Sleeping Diana. 95 x 125 cm. Old oil painting on canvas, without frame (not signed). Condition report: Lined canvas. Good state of conservation of t...

Italian painter (18th century) - La fruttarola. 70.5 x 58.5 cm without frame, 88.5 x 75.5 cm with frame. Antique oil painting on canvas, in a carved wooden frame (not signed). Con...

A voluptuous woman lies prone on a divan, bearing her backside and turning her head flirtatiously to the viewer, though averting her eyes slightly, as if to maintain a coy demeanor. Surrounded by lush fabrics of deep blues, the creamy tones of her skin and dressing gown are thrown in sharp contrast, making the figure glow luminously. The whole painting is ordered by folds - of flesh, of fabric, of cushions, of the rug - inviting the viewer's eye to look closely across the topography of the canvas. One of Boucher's cabinet paintings (that is, paintings made for private collectors rather than official exhibition at the Salon), the open eroticism of this work invites a voyeuristic gaze. Although it was created for a private audience, it was later displayed at the Salon of 1767, where the critic Denis Diderot found it shocking and lascivious. Nonetheless, Boucher would later paint another iteration of this reclining pose, this time using Marie-Louise O'Murphy, a favorite mistress of King Louis XV, as his model, suggesting that the provocative composition was a stock figure for Boucher's private commissions. "The Brunette Odalisque" (French: L'Odalisque or l'Odalisque brune) is a painting of c. 1745 by François Boucher, now in the Louvre in Paris. He later produced two other works in the odalisque genre, both known as "The Blonde Odalisque". The present painting is another version of Bouchers painting which differs in minor details. The quality of the paint is very fine and the whole technique and style allows a dating to c. 1750. As Boucher's Painting was very famous there were several copies and versions which were made by his studio. The present painting can be attributed to the close circle of Boucher. The Painting is framed in a golden frame which was built in the Rococo style in c. 1990. Both the title of Boucher's painting and the objects found in the interior fix the subject as an odalisque, a concubine within the harem of the Ottoman sultan. The sumptuous textiles and exotic, decorative objects suggest early traces of Orientalism, although the figure appears European. Odalisque paintings...

Signed, lower right: Fantin Provenance: Gustave Tempelaere (1840–1904), Paris; possibly by descent to his son: Julien Tempelaere (1876–1961) and with F. & J. Tempelaere, Paris, prob...