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La Grande Odalisque
A nude in a harem looking back over her shoulder, her back impossibly long.
Ingres painted her in Rome for Caroline Murat, Napoleon's sister and Queen of Naples, who never got it: the Murats fell with Napoleon the next year.
At the Salon of 1819 the critics laughed at the length of her back, two or three vertebrae too many, they said. Ingres stretched it on purpose, for the line, and the picture became one of the Louvre's best loved. Stand before it in 3D ›
More in The Louvre
Mona LisaLeonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1519
The Wedding at CanaPaolo Veronese, 1563
The Raft of the MedusaThéodore Géricault, 1818–1819
Liberty Leading the PeopleEugène Delacroix, 1830
Venus de MiloProbably Alexandros of Antioch, c. 150–125 BC
Winged Victory of SamothraceUnknown Greek sculptor, c. 190 BC
The Virgin of the RocksLeonardo da Vinci, c. 1483–1486
The Oath of the HoratiiJacques-Louis David, 1784
The Coronation of NapoleonJacques-Louis David, 1805–1807
