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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.”

Auguste Renoir

Odalisque, 1870

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 81

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.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1963.10.207

Artists / Makers

Auguste Renoir (artist) French, 1841 - 1919

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower left: A. Renoir. 70.

Provenance

Anonymous collection, Paris.[1] (Galerie Heinemann, Munich) from 1913; sold 1916 to Hans Wendland [b. 1880]. [2] (Dr. Gottlieb Friedrich Reber [1880-1959], Basel); sold to (Paul Rosenberg & Co., London, New York, and Paris); [3] sold 1928 to (Hugo Perls, New York); [4] from 1931 with (Paul Rosenberg & Co., London, New York and Paris); sold 1933 to Chester Dale [1882-1963], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

[1] Letter from Paul Rosenberg to Chester Dale, dated 31 March 1942, in which Rosenberg described having seen the picture in an apartment in Paris before 1914 (copy NGA curatorial files).

[2] Galerie Heinemann records, no. 12082 (copies NGA curatorial files).

[3] Letter from Paul Rosenberg to Chester Dale, dated 31 March 1942, in which Rosenberg explains that Reber was an intermediary for a German private collection. This is likely Wendland, who bought the painting in 1916. The painting is included in the list of Reber's collection compiled by Peter Kropmanns and Uwe Fleckner, "Von Kontinentaler Bedeutung: Gottlieb Freidrich Reber und seine Sammlungen," in Die Moderne und ihre Sammler (Berlin, 2001), p 392, but was not lent by Reber to any known exhibitions of his collection.

[4] See letter from Hugo Perls dated 25 November 1968, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Dale, Chester
Galerie Heinemann
Perls, Hugo
Reber, Gottlieb Friedrich, Dr.
Rosenberg, Paul

Exhibition History

1870: Salon of 1870, Paris, no. 2406 as Femme d'Alger.

1888: Exposition, Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1888, no. 14 as Femme d'Alger

1892: Exposition A. Renoir, Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1892, no. 27 as Femme d'Alger

1900: Possibly Exposition A. Renoir, Galeries Bernheim Jeune et Fils, Paris, 1900, no. 49 as Femme algérienne.

1904: Possibly Universal Exposition, St. Louis, 1904, no. 463a.

1913: L'Art français du XIXe siècle, Munich, 1913, repro. no. 190

1931: Probably Exposition coloniale internationale, Grand Palais, Paris, 1931.

1965: The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1984: The Orientalists: Delacroix to Matisse, The Allure of North Africa and the Near East, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1984, no. 106, repro.

2010: From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1870: Cham, pseud. Le Charivari (29 June 1870): 3.

1870: Houssaye, Arsène. "Le Salon de 1870." L'Artiste 9e série, XIII (June 1870): 319-320 [cited in John Rewald, The History of Impressionism, New York, 1973: 246, 268 n.14].

1873: Chaumelin, Marius. L'Art contemporain. Paris, 1873:417.

1908: Meier-Graefe, Julius. Modern Art. 5 vols. London, 1908:II:290.

1909: Geffroy, Gustave. "Renoir, peintre de la femme." L'Art et les artistes X, no. 57 (December 1909): 110 repro.

1919: Duret, Théodore. Histoire des peintres impressionnistes: Pissarro, Claude Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Cezanne, Guillaumin. 2nd ed. Paris, 1919: 84, 94.

1920: Vollard, Ambroise. Auguste Renoir. Paris, 1920: repro. opposite 228.

1923: Fosca, François. Renoir. Paris, 1923: 23-24.

1924: Duret, Théodore. Renoir. Paris, 1924:33-34.

1926: Hertz, Henri. "Renoir." Art in America XIV, no. 2 (February 1926):52.

1929: Meier-Graefe, Julius. Renoir. Leipzig, 1929: 38-40, 44, repro. p. 39, no. 22.

1931: "Le Palais permanent des colonies." Beaux-Arts. 9 (35 July 1931):3.

1931: M. F. "La Section des Beaux-Arts et les Petites Expositions à l'Exposition Coloniale." L'Art et des artistes N.S. 22, no. 199 (July 1931): 348.

1933: Roger-Marx, Claude. Renoir. Paris, 1933: 19.

1934: Vollard, Ambroise. Renoir: An Intimate Record. New York, 1934:236.

1935: Barnes, Albert C. and Violette de Mazia. The Art of Renoir. New York, 1935: 50n, 51n, 80n, 200n. 443, no. 17.

1935: Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 296, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 296, repro.).

1937: McBride, Henry. "The Renoirs in America: In Appreciation of the Metropolitan Museum's Exhibition," Art News 35, no. 31 (1 May 1937):60.

1938: Florisoone, Michel. Renior. Paris, 1938: 12.

1940: "Chester Dale Loans to the National Gallery." Art Digest 16 (15 November 1940):9

1940: Wilenski, R.H. Modern French Painters. New York, 1940: 22, 61, 337, repro. pl. 6B.

1941: Catalogue of French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 12, repro. pl. XXIII

1941: "The Chester Dale Pictures on loan to the National Gallery of Art." Magazine of Art 34 no. 9 (November 1941): 476+, repro.

1942: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 64, repro.

1943: Graber, Hans. Auguste Renoir nach eigenen und fremden Zeugnissen. Basel, 1943:11, 12, 39, 39-40 n. 2.

1944: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 168, color repro.

1944: Drucker, Michel. Renoir. Paris, 1944: 182.

1944: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 64, repro.

1944: Frost, Rosamund. Pierre Auguste Renoir. New York, 1944:7.

1944: Jewell, Edward Alden. French Impressionists and their Contemporaries Represented in American Collections. New York, 1944: repro. 67.

1944: Wilenski, R.H. Modern French Painters. London, 1944: 22, 61, 337, repro. pl. 6B

1946: Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1946:199, repro.

1947: Gowling, Lawrence, Intro. Renoir. London and Paris, 1947: 5.

1948: Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces by Delacroix and Renoir for the beneit of the New York Heart Association. Exh. cat. Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, 1948:15.

1949: Wilenski, Reginald H. Modern French Painters. New York, 1949: xiii, repro. 6A.

1950: A Loan Exhibition of Renoir for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. Exh. cat. Wildenstein, New York, 1950: 25.

1953: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 74, repro.

1954: Rouart, Denis. Renoir. Geneva, 1954:5, 22, 27, repro.

1957: Fox, Milton. A Gallery of Portraits by Renoir. New York, 1957: 2.

1959: Cooper, Douglas. "Renoir, Lise and the Le Coeur Family: A Study of Renoir's Early Development - I: Lise." The Burlington Magazine 101 (1959):168, repro.

1961: Fosca, François. Renoir, His Life and Work. London, 1961:21.

1961: Giudice, Piero Del. Gli Impressionisti. Milan, 1961: 45.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 325, repro.

1965: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 108, repro.

1965: Frankfurter, Alfred. "How Great is the Dale Collection?" Art News 64 (May 1965):53.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 113.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:442, color repro.

1968: Hanson, Lawrence. Renoir: The Man, The Painter, and his World. New York, 1968: 96, 98, 110.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 100, repro.

1970: Renior. Paris, Réalités Hachette, 1970:14, 233.

1971: Daulte, Francois. Auguste Renoir, catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre peint. Vol.I. Figures 1860-1890. Lausanne, 1971: no. 48

1971: Daulte, François. August Renoir. Milan, 1971: 20, repro. 21.

1971: Richter, Antje. Auguste Renoir. Berlin, 1971:12.

1972: Fezzi, Elda. L'opera completa di Renoir nel period impressionista 1869-1883. Milan, 1972: no. 52, repro.

1972: Fox, Milton S. Pierre-Auguste Renoir: A Gallery of Portraits. New York, 1972:4

1973: Champa, Kermit S. Studies in Early Impressionism. New Haven and London, 1973: 40, 90, repro. 88.

1973: Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1973: 239-240, repro.

1974: Fouchet, Max-Pol. Les Nus de Renoir. Paris and Lausanne, 1974:100-101, repro. 103.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 296, repro.

1975: Whelden, Keith. Renoir and his art. London and New York, 1975:43, repro.

1976: Gaunt, William. Renoir. Oxford, 1976: 7, repro.

1978: De Poli, Franco. Renoir. Munich, 1978:14, 31, 88.

1978: Martini, Alberto. Renoir. New York, 1978: repro. plate XIII.

1980: Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York, 1980:229, 242, 438, repro.

1980: Monneret, Sophie (intro). Guida alla pittura di Renoir. Milan, 1980:7, 18, 40, 42, 128, 162, no. 47.

1982: Gaunt, William. Renoir. 3rd. ed. Oxford, 1982: repro. 8.

1982: Rosenthal, Donald. Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting, 1800-1880. Exh. cat., Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1982: 143, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 469, no. 688, color repro.

1984: White, Barbara Ehrlich. Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters. New York, 1984: 33+, repro.

1985: Arts Council of Great Britain. Renoir. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery , London, Galleries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1985-1986:194, repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 340, repro.

1985: Rouart, Denis. Renoir. Rev. ed., New York, 1985: 22, repro. 23.

1992: Marandel, Jean-Patrice. "Frédéric Baziille: The Lure of Exoticsim." In Frédéric Bazille Prophet of Impressionism. Exh. cat. Musée Fabre, Montpellier, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, 1992: 73, repro. fig. 33.

1993: Bajou, Valérie. Frédéric Bazille 1841-1870. Aix-en-Provence, 1993:172-173, repro. 164

1993: Gost, Roswitha. Der Harem. Cologne, 1993: 41 repro.

1994: Beaudan, Colette Juillard. L'imaginaire de la femme enfermée: le regard des peintres et des écrivans du XIXe siècle Français sur la femme orientale. 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1994: II: 2, repro.

1994: Tinterow, Gary and Henri Loyrette. Origins of Impressionism. Exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994:337, under no. 13.

1995: Distel, Anne. Renoir A Sensuous Vision. New York, 1995: 31, repro.

1996: Adriani, Götz. Renoir. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Tübingen, 1996: 83, repro.

1996: Roos, Jane Mayo. Early Impressionism and the French State (1866-1874). Cambridge, 1996: 144, 259 nt. 49.

1997: Bailey, Colin B. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an age.Yale University Press New Haven and London, in association with National Gallery of Canada Ottawa, 1997,no.117,repro.

1997: Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism, 1997, no. 213, repro.

1997: Matisse: La révélation m'est venue de l'Orient, Exh. cat., Musei capitolini, Rome, 1997: 86, repro.

1998: Rayfield, Susan. Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998: 51-54, repro. 52.

2000: Lemaire, Gérard-Georges. L'univers des orientalistes. Pairs, 2000: 260, repro.

2001: Kropmanns, Peter, and Uwe Fleckner. "Von Kontinentaler Bedeutung: Gottlieb Freidrich Reber und seine Sammlungen." In Die Moderne und ihre Sammler. Andrea Pophanken and Felix Billeter, eds. Berlin, 2001: 392.

2003: Benjamin, Roger. Renoir and Algeria. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 2003: 18, repro.

2006: Brettell, Richard R., and Stephen F. Eisenman. Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum. New Haven and London, 2006: 330 fig. 87a.

2007: Dauberville, Guy-Patrice, and Michel Dauberville. Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles. 5 vols. Paris, 2007: 1:no. 293.

2015: Noon, Patrick, and Christopher Riopelle. Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art. Exh. cat. Minneapolis Institute of Art; National Gallery, London. London, 2015: 145 fig. 36.