Why it matters
Ingres fills a round canvas with nude women in a harem, arranged in a 'great curvaceous fugue'. He was about 82 when he signed it in 1862, and he never travelled beyond Europe: his vision of the Orient is entirely idealised.
Did you know?
- It was first completed as a rectangle, between 1852 and 1859.
- A photograph of the original version by Charles Marville survives.
- It reuses motifs from The Valpinçon Bather and La Grande Odalisque.
Based on the Wikipedia article The Turkish Bath (CC BY-SA 4.0).
