Odalisque c. 1830

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres painted this Odalisque with oil on canvas, a very conventional medium for the time. Yet, the artist's approach was anything but typical. Ingres was a master of line, and you can see it here in the smoothness of the odalisque's skin. The intense labor that goes into creating that seamless surface – the countless layers of paint, each one meticulously applied and blended. This is an academic approach, rooted in the artisanal tradition of the European workshop. But unlike the work of many of his contemporaries, Ingres’s Odalisque embodies a tension between the ideal and the real. Look at the fabrics, rendered with sensuous detail. But then consider the woman's body. Ingres has elongated her spine, seemingly without end. He isn’t concerned with realistic representation. Ingres’s work reminds us that even the most polished artistic techniques are, at their heart, about choices – what to show, what to emphasize, and what to leave out. The means of production are always a lens through which we see the world.