Lot 61: Joseph Sedlacek (AUSTRIAN, 1789 - 1845)

Joseph Sedlacek (AUSTRIAN, 1789 - 1845)
The Jewel of the Harem
signed 'J. Sedlacek' (lower left)
oil on canvas
51 x 32 in. (129.5 x 81.3 cm.)

Anonymous sale; Gros & Delettrez, 8 December 1997, lot 158, (as Séduction).
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 20 June 2002, lot 45, (as A Harem Beauty).

Kristian Davies writes, 'no other subject contributed more to the popularity of the genre' (K. Davies, The Orientalists, New York, 2005, p. 247) when speaking about women in Orientalist paintings. Within Orientalist paintings of women, there are those that portray authentic representations of women, recording the elegance and modesty of the Arab and Indian world, and there are those that are fantastical and alluring - appealing to 19th Century Westerners. Joseph Sedlaceck, like many of his Austrian contemporaries, found the fantastical representations of the harem, slave scenes, dancers, and odalisques more to his liking.

The present lot depicts an unabashed and sensuous woman in the harem. However, Sedlacek would have never seen the inside of a harem for a number of reasons. First, it was the part of a house set apart for the women of the family in Muslim countries, translated to 'forbidden' or 'protected'. Second, 'whether the Orientalist painter personally visited the East or not, he was depicting the land as an outsider. No matter how many years he may have resided there, no matter how many Easterners he counted as acquaintance or friends, he was never completely accepted as a member of society' (I. Fort, Femme Fatale or Caring Mother? The Orientalist Woman's Struggle for Dignity, New York, 1996, p. 40). Only men closely related to the sequestered women could enter the harem. Therefore, Westerners could not partake in the Muslim traditions, but only fantasize about the activities in the harem and the attire of the women. Third, the harem was intended to protect the virtue of Muslim women, not inspire provoking thoughts. Sedlaceck's execution of the present lot seems in line with the latter. The woman takes over the entire space of the composition - her emphasized curves, and her bared skin, her unruly hair and her pose intrude into the space of the viewer - inviting them into the secluded harem.

Sedlaceck's figure, however, can be interpreted as an odalisque within the harem. Oda, meaning room (in the innermost circle), indicated the courtyard of the most important and beautiful woman in the harem. Raised in their country of birth, the young girl would be taken from her home at a young age and taught by the Odas of the court to perfect the task she was assigned within the estate. When romantic imaginations such as Sedlececk and Victor Hugo, who had written Les Orientales in 1828, were introduced to these ideas, the yield was entirely 'd'hedonisme et de passions effrénées' where the Odalisque or 'jewel of the harem' was represented as 'des créatures allanguies repues de plaisirs sensuels' (L. Thornton, La femme dans la peinture orientalists, Paris, 1993, p. 114). As in the present lot, the harem woman was shown wearing diaphanous cloths, contrary to the reality of the true Eastern woman.