élisa Joinville (active In The Second Half Of The 19th Century), Odalisque With Parrot

Élisa Joinville (active in the second half of the 19th century)

Odalisque with parrot

Oil on board, cm 24 x 33

With frame, cm 43 x 51

Signed and dated (18)75 bottom left

This small table represents a group of odalisques, that is the concubines who made up the harems of the Turkish sultans of the Ottoman Empire, inside a lush garden with exotic vegetation and typical of the Mediterranean climate. The porch behind them suggests that it is the inner garden of a great palace, perhaps that of a sultan or a pasha; The presence of these green spaces was typical in the luxurious Turkish and middle-eastern residences and the geographical location is confirmed by the clothes worn by women, the carpet and the hookah. The taste for the exotic, witnessed also by the presence of the parrot, gave birth during the nineteenth century to a pictorial current known as orientalism, which was born in France following the Napoleonic expedition in Egypt and then developed, Also thanks to the fervent colonialism, within the pictorial tradition of other European countries throughout the century. This genre tended to represent typical settings and atmospheres of the eastern world full of charm, exotic mystery and often also a certain sensuality, for the romantic tendency to see in the exotic world an environment free from Western bourgeois conventions. In this work we find the same canons with a voluptuous tone given by odalische intents to play with the nice bird.