26 Paintings by the Orientalist Artists of the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes #8
ODALISQUE
Oil on canvas
48 by 37cm., 18¾ by 14½in.
Private Collection
Sold for 81,250 GBP in Dec 2016
The girl in the present work wears an ornate Ottoman gold coin headdress with a fringe of star-shaped amulets, and a matching necklace. With her white diaphanous veil and dress, and hair braided into a bun, she is dressed for a special occasion or celebration, possibly her own wedding. The cropped composition and punctilious draughtsmanship of the present work suggest the influence of photography so evident in Gérôme’s work also.
Born in Constantinople of Greek descent, Ralli’s precocious talent came to the attention of King Otto of Greece, under whose patronage he was able to travel to Paris to enrol at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under the tutelage of Gerome. He made his debut at the Paris Salon in 1875, and in 1900 was appointed to the jury of the Exposition Universelle. More on this painting
Théodore Jacques Ralli or Theodorus Rallis (Constantinople, 16 February 1852–2 October 1909, Lausanne) was a Greek painter, watercolourist and draughtsman, who spent most of his working life in Paris, France and in Egypt.
He painted genre works, portraits, local figures, architectural subjects, interiors with figures and animals. But he is best known for his orientalist paintings…