Matisse/Odalisque

The odalisque, a harem slave or concubine, was a popular subject in European art throughout the colonial period.

This small-scale focus exhibition gathers together seven such subjects including Frédéric Bazille’s Woman in a Moorish Costume (1869), Pablo Picasso’s Women of Algiers, Version "I" (1955), and Henri Matisse’s Odalisque with Tambourine (Harmony in Blue) (1926)—to show how artists exploit the tension between reality and artifice in these images. 

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.