A woman wearing a sheer white blouse, short red and gold vest, and full-legged, patterned pants cinched below the knee lies back and looks at us with hooded eyes in this horizontal painting. Her shoulders lean back against an oversized white pillow, up along the right edge of the composition. Her body tips toward us, and her knees are bent so her feet are together in the lower left corner. Her right arm rests along the side of her body, and she props herself up with her other arm. That hand has a gold band on the ring finger. Her light skin is tinged with green on her face. Her head rolls slightly away from us so she looks down her cheeks at us with slitted, dark eyes through heavily lined lids. She has dark brows, and her rose-red lips are parted. The angle of her head creates a slight double chin. Gold hoops with dangling fringe or chains hang from her ears, and she wears three strands of dark beads around her neck. Her black hair is plaited in a thick braid that comes down over her left shoulder, closer to us. A cap made of gold-colored disks and red fringe sits on the far side of her head. The woman’s clothing is more loosely painted. We may see her breasts and pink nipples through her sheer, silver-gray tunic, which has long, voluminous sleeves. The short, bolero-style vest is strawberry red and gold, with narrow cap sleeves. A sea-blue sash around her waist is striped with overlapping burnt-orange and black lines. Her pants have flaring legs gathered with a button just below her knees. The pattern is of sage-green circles with swipes of rust-red in the center, suggesting flowers and vines against a black background. Her knees are spread open so her feet can barely be contained within the composition. Her teal-green slip-on shoes have the suggestion of flowers painted with dabs of yellow, black, and red, and a pompom atop each toe box. A red and gold cushion sits just beyond her feet. On it is a tray of oranges and an emerald-green jug. The pillow the woman leans on is propped against a short section of wall or piece of furniture painted with a border of roses. The room opens up beyond this, and has a turquoise and brown rug leading back to a cranberry-red sofa, on which a gray piece of fabric has been draped. The wall above is patterned with yellow and green diamonds and pink flowers against a laurel-green background. The artist signed the lower left, “A. Renoir. 70.”

Odalisque

Auguste Renoir

A woman wearing a sheer white blouse, short red and gold vest, and full-legged, patterned pants cinched below the knee lies back and looks at us with hooded eyes in this horizontal painting. Her shoulders lean back against an oversized white pillow, up along the right edge of the composition. Her body tips toward us, and her knees are bent so her feet are together in the lower left corner. Her right arm rests along the side of her body, and she props herself up with her other arm. That hand has a gold band on the ring finger. Her light skin is tinged with green on her face. Her head rolls slightly away from us so she looks down her cheeks at us with slitted, dark eyes through heavily lined lids. She has dark brows, and her rose-red lips are parted. The angle of her head creates a slight double chin. Gold hoops with dangling fringe or chains hang from her ears, and she wears three strands of dark beads around her neck. Her black hair is plaited in a thick braid that comes down over her left shoulder, closer to us. A cap made of gold-colored disks and red fringe sits on the far side of her head. The woman’s clothing is more loosely painted. We may see her breasts and pink nipples through her sheer, silver-gray tunic, which has long, voluminous sleeves. The short, bolero-style vest is strawberry red and gold, with narrow cap sleeves. A sea-blue sash around her waist is striped with overlapping burnt-orange and black lines. Her pants have flaring legs gathered with a button just below her knees. The pattern is of sage-green circles with swipes of rust-red in the center, suggesting flowers and vines against a black background. Her knees are spread open so her feet can barely be contained within the composition. Her teal-green slip-on shoes have the suggestion of flowers painted with dabs of yellow, black, and red, and a pompom atop each toe box. A red and gold cushion sits just beyond her feet. On it is a tray of oranges and an emerald-green jug. The pillow the woman leans on is propped against a short section of wall or piece of furniture painted with a border of roses. The room opens up beyond this, and has a turquoise and brown rug leading back to a cranberry-red sofa, on which a gray piece of fabric has been draped. The wall above is patterned with yellow and green diamonds and pink flowers against a laurel-green background. The artist signed the lower left, “A. Renoir. 70.”

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Auguste Renoir
Date
1870
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 69.2 x 122.6 cm (27 1/4 x 48 1/4 in.) framed: 99 x 153.7 cm (39 x 60 1/2 in.)
Department
CF
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Chester Dale Collection

Art Genome Taxonomy

11 tags

Subject Matter

  • Human Figure Visual · 99%

    A reclining woman occupies most of the horizontal composition and is the dominant figure.

  • Eye Contact Visual · 98%

    The woman looks directly toward the viewer with a clearly visible, heavily lined gaze.

  • Interiors Visual · 98%

    The figure is shown indoors among a pillow, sofa, rug, draped fabric, patterned walls, and furnishings.

  • Related to Fashion Visual · 97%

    Clothing and adornment are visually prominent, including a sheer blouse, red-and-gold vest, patterned trousers, sash, earrings, beads, and a decorative headpiece.

Visual Qualities

  • Patterns Visual · 99%

    Floral, geometric, and textile patterns appear across the trousers, cushions, rug, wall covering, and furnishings.

  • Bright and Vivid Colors Visual · 96%

    The composition uses saturated reds, greens, turquoise, blues, and gold in strong contrast with the pale pillow and flesh tones.

  • Dense Composition Visual · 97%

    Overlapping textiles, furnishings, patterned surfaces, and the extended figure occupy nearly the entire picture plane.

  • Highly Ornamented Visual · 97%

    Jewelry, fringe, patterned garments, floral motifs, and decorated furnishings produce an extensively embellished visual environment.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 100%

    The National Gallery of Art identifies the medium as oil on canvas.

  • Large-Scale Painting Visual · 92%

    The painting displays varied, visibly loose brushwork, especially in the textiles, drapery, furnishings, and flesh passages.

Time Periods

  • 19th Century Art Metadata · 100%

    The cataloged date is 1870, placing the work in the nineteenth century.

Source & rights

Auguste Renoir. Odalisque. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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