Odalisque reclining on a divan

Odalisque Reclining on a Divan from 1825 at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge shows the early Delacroix exploring Orientalist subjects before his 1832 visit to Morocco gave him direct experience of North African culture. His odalisque paintings, inspired by literary and visual sources rather than observation, drew on the established tradition of Ingres's Grand Odalisque of 1814 and the broader European fascination with the harem as a space of imagined erotic freedom and exotic beauty. Delacroix's treatment brought Romantic color and gestural energy to a subject that Ingres had rendered with Neo-classical precision, demonstrating from the very beginning of his career how different his approach was from his great rival's. As the leading French Romantic painter, he brought passionate color and dynamic energy to all his subjects, and his early odalisques already show the warm, sensuous palette and confident brushwork of his mature style. The Fitzwilliam Museum holds this as an important early Delacroix in one of Britain's finest university collections.

The reclining figure is rendered with warm flesh tones and rich fabrics. Delacroix's handling of the exotic setting creates an atmosphere of sensuous languor.