Les Femmes du Maroc: Grande Odalisque
Lalla Essaydi

“The compelling photograph La Grande Odalisque, by Lalla Essaydi, which references Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ famous 1814 reclining nude, La Grande Odalisque. That oil painting, residing in the Louvre in Paris, belongs to a genre that came to be known as Orientalism. The term describes the exotic and sensual way in which 19th– and early 20th-century Western artists (mostly male) depicted the Muslim culture of North Africa and the Middle East.

In her photo series Les Femmes du Maroc,which includes Le Grande Odalisque, Essaydi reacts to and in some cases recreates these Orientalist images, making subtle changes in poses and facial expressions. Her subjects are draped in white (mourning) cloth and covered in dense Arabic calligraphy done in henna. The words are largely illegible but come from the artist’s own musings about personal identity and freedom.”-Toledo Museum

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