Ingres's "Grand Odalisque" and Manet's "Olympia"
In this essay I will compare and contrast two masterpiece paintings belonging to different artistic periods and containing unique characteristics of artists’ unique styles, namely, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ Grand Odalisque and Edouard Monet’s Olympia.
Ingres – a recognized nineteenth century artist – created Grand Odalisque in 1814. His painting contains some of the prominent features of the so-called Romantic art characterized by the presence of emotion, expressive palette and expressionistic painting techniques along with some approaches typical for the author. Thus, Romanticism is the cultural movement of 1750-1850, which has influenced literature, music and fine arts. The founders of Romanticism rejected some of the traditional academic approaches and sought complete freedom of expression in their artwork. They have been mainly concerned with expressing such ideas as adventure, romantic love, freedom of self-expression, human freedom and individualism. In particular, they preferred freedom of feeling and imagination over rationalistic thought, and expressed that in their art through the variety of ways denying submission to some single artistic style. Another concept widely used by the Romantic art has been the notion of the “Sublime” – that is, an idea developed by Edmund Burke, which has encompassed overwhelming treatment of terror, darkness, power and pain of which human nature is capable. The term Romanticism had been created by German literary critics who have been eager to define this new literary and cultural movement clearly different from Neoclassicism (Required reading).
When it comes to fine arts, Romanticism is quite difficult to define. Romantic artists employed a wide range of styles and approaches in their work and can be only linked together by their individualism and rejection of strict academic standards.
Hence, Grand Odalisque can be attributed to the Romantic period, however, it is more characterized by author’s individual style than by artistic approaches widespread among Romantic artists. The only theme common for this period which can be found in Grand Odalisque is exotica, that is, the use of places or people from non-European culture. Since Odalisque is the term associated with the Turkish culture and used to identify a female slave in the harem, the employment of this theme in Ingres’ work exploits features of unknown and distant place and therefore makes it exotic, mysterious and, thus, Romantic (Required reading).
As for the artistic techniques used by Ingres in the painting, one can easily distinguish some features typical for his style, such as clear outline and linear style, more typical to the Neoclassic movement. Thus, the female figure in the painting is accentuated by light and has a distinct contour which is emphasized by setting it against the darker background. This adds to the overemphasized quality of the detail and makes the painting even more sensual, realistic and yet, romanticized. Fur, rich oriental fabric, opium pipe and peacock fan surrounding the nude woman emphasize the exotic idea of the female slave, forbidden, foreign and erotic to the male European viewer.
The other painting which is going to be discussed further in this essay is Edouard Manet’s Olympia created in 1865. This painting is attributed to another artistic period, namely, Realism. Just as Romanticism, Realism cannot be characterized by one distinct artistic style, but is rather an ideology encompassing the influences of various industrial, intellectual and working-class revolutions of the nineteenth century (Required reading). It exploited subjects which have been previously overlooked in fine arts and literature, such as contemporary real-life scenes and the details of farm or manual labor workers’ life. These subjects mostly concerned and reflected the lives of people representing the working class and sought to express protest against the French society, its social system and academic standards. In general, in their artwork the representatives of Realism protested against the bourgeois values and tastes which they despised (Artcyclopedia.com).
Realism promoted the idea that the everyday life of mere laborer or common farm worker can be an acceptable and worthy artistic subject and must not be idealized in the artwork, but portrayed in a straightforward and realistic manner. That is why little or no mythological, historical or Biblical figures can found in the Realistic art which reflects the world in an objective and impartial manner. This has been a quite revolutionary idea for the nineteenth’s century art, which at first has been fiercely criticized, widely opposed and even feared. However, gradually Realism has been accepted as a worthy cultural and artistic movement with its own recognized artists, whose work and philosophy has head a great influence on the Western art (Artcyclopedia.com).
Hence, Olympia is a noteworthy example of this movement created by one of the prominent Realistic artists Edouard Manet, who has been regarded as innovative and therefore controversial painter of his time, for his open use of common social scenes and detached portray of human life (Artcyclopedia.com).
The main difference between Manet and Realistic artists has been in his use of bourgeois class’ representatives as subject matter of his paintings and the features of classic artistic training. So, on one hand his choice of subject has been different form those typically used by the representatives of Realistic movement, but on the other hand Manet has portrayed his models in a frank and objective manner typical for Realism.
As for his artistic technique, Manet has been credited with developing an approach called “color patch”, rejected by many of his contemporaries and labeled by critics as “sketched” or “unfinished” (Required reading).
In Olympia, the subject of the panting is classical in terms of portraying typical for the Western art reclining female nude. However, the way in which the author has chosen to present this subject can be by all means referred to as quite “modern”. Thus, the name Manet has chosen for the painting is the French nickname for the prostitute painted from the real-life model of a similar occupation. Naturally, the exhibition of Olympia has caused a great unrest among the public due to its controversial nature (Required reading). In addition, the paining displays some of the typical Realistic attributes, such as muted color palette and emphasis of surface, and is a typical example of Manet’s color patch technique.
Although similar in its subject, it is quite different from the Ingre’s Grand Odalisque in the representation. Thus, a woman in Olympia is neither mystified nor romanticized. She is the real life character who leads a life of certain nature common and well understood by the modern viewer. It is not the least sensual and the use of such subjects as flower or black cat does not add to the mystery but further reveals and emphasizes the pragmatic nature of her life style. In contrast with the sensual beauty and romantic aura of the Ingre’s Grand Odalisque, the color patch technique makes Manet’s painting appear untidy and, thus, the female figure is seen as heavily outlined and ugly painted in the hard light and on the muted background.
Thus, while at first glance the two artists seem to use similar objects and employ common themes, in truth their works posses some drastic differences of the choice of subjects and the manner of representation which reflect two different cultural movements and two distinct individual styles.
Works cited:
“Artists by Movement: Realism”. Artcyclopedia. 2005. 22 Jan. 2007.
“Ingres's "Grand Odalisque" and Manet's "Olympia". Required reading.