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Lot description
Antonio Rivas, Spanish 1845-1911- In the harem; oil heightened with scratching out on canvas, signed and inscribed 'A. Rivas / Roma' (upper right), 21.5 x 38.3 cm. Provenance: Private Collection, UK. Note: The present work illustrates the interior of a harem, with a man and woman lying in languor and draped in flowing fabrics. The French term ‘odalisque’ derives from oda (room) and means literally ‘woman of the room’. These women were not concubines of the harem but virgin slaves serving the needs of the Sultan's wives or his mother (the Valide Sultan). Only those most nubile of women with extraordinary beauty and potential talent were selected for training in dance, poetry, musical instruments and the erotic arts, with the hope of one day capturing the Sultan's attention (Alev Lytle Croutier, ‘Harem, The World Beyond the Veil’, New York, 1989, p.32). Here, Rivas’s odalisque, with the sultan’s adoring gaze upon her, functions as a seductive fantasy of harem life. Stretched on a divan, swathed in pink and white silks and gold bangles, and resting against a pink pillow, she becomes one of many of the composition’s visual delights. Rivas evocatively reveals the exotic fabrics, costumes, and décor of the harem, painted in large blocks of saturated colour detailed with points of paint suggesting glittering jewels or elaborate embroideries. A similar, larger composition appeared at Sotheby’s, New York, 22 October 2019, lot 77.