Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 24, 1995, lot 83, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

This painting on panel is stable. The panel is in healthy condition with one four inch crack entering the paint layer in the center of the right side. There are no other structural issues. The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: The paint layer is stable yet a little dirty and should be cleaned. Cleaning will lighten the palette and remove some of the milky blooming which is particularly visible in the figures. The slight thinness to the tiles on the wall behind the figures seems to be intentional and there is some slight abrasion beneath the hair of the reclining woman. The graininess in the rug on the far left however may well be intentional. The painting would benefit from restoration.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Sprawled across a carpet-covered divan, as enervated as the tiger pelt beneath her, a young woman dangles a long-necked lute, too tired to play.  Her head is cradled in her companion's lap, but her thoughts are far away.  Eyes glazed, lids half closed, the cheerless expression of this clothed odalisque brings a touch of solemnity to the exuberantly patterned scene. ("Odalisque," derived from the Turkish word odalik,🌊 was used in the nin𝓡eteenth century to refer to a female slave, or inmate of the harem.)

A consummate magpie, Ernst incorporated an eclectic - and oft-repeated - array of accessories and architectural details into his Orientalist works.  (Here, for example, the burgundy salteh and waist-scarf of the figure on the right reappears in The Dutar Player (see lot 177) and the💎 animal-skin rug is found in countless other compositions.)  Studio props, photographs, and sketches and souvenirs, gathered during his extensive travels through North Africa, E꧑gypt, and Turkey, together with a realistic style, allowed Ernst to create a compelling vision of the Middle East - even when the subject was one he cannot have known or seen.

Perceptions of the harem as a site of both indolence and excess were pervasive in the nineteenth century, despite - or due to - its inaccessibility to European travelers.  In the absence of factual accounts by more than a handful of privileged visitors, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) most notably among them, artists' imaginations ran rampant. Among the most prevalent and popular of pictorial themes was that of a fetching harem inmate, engaged in (what were alleged to be) the "typical" pursuits of her daily life.  Reflective more of the ﷺspeculative fantasies of the respective authors than the realities of the Middle Eastern domestic sphere, however, such images often dissolved into an overt eroticism, epitomized by the recumbant female figure.  Ernst rescues his composition from this all-too-common trend by focusing on the play of surfaces, textures, and designs within this room, and by adding a subtle narrative gloss:  Who are these wearyℱ women, and why have they ceased to play?

This catalogue n💦ote was written by Dr. Emily M. Weeks.