Odalisque in Paris

#92013      36″ X 48 ”      ac

• Renoir: “Odalisque” (1870)
• Modigliani: “Nude on a Blue Cushion” (1917)
• Braque: “The Pink Tablecloth” (1931 or 1933)

Since the avant-garde Impressionists started to paint Paris, the city of light, and its modern life where men and women socialized in this urban democratic society of restaurants, coffee rooms and dance halls, the capital of France became more and more the international center of modern art attracting artists from every corner of France and foreign countries. In the course of more than four decades, arts have witnessed the Belle-Epoque (1871-1914) in progress and prosperity, especially in Paris with a mixed ambiance of monarchism, bourgeoisie and exoticism.

In this painting “Odalisque in Paris”, T. F. Chen tried to express some aspects of such an ambiance by combining Renoir, Modigliani and Braque together with modifications.

French colonization of North Africa had enriched French art. Already new themes and tastes appeared in paintings by Delacroix and Images. Following them, Renoir’s “Odalisque” in 1870, depicted a seductive girl with defiant gaze, in an exquisite knicker with golden brocade, a multicolored striped sash and gauze blouse. Chen appropriated the lady while replaced the decorative of the interior by Modigliani’s Nude and Braque’s Still Life “The Pink Tablecloth”, with some modifications for the harmony of the whole painting.

The contrast between Renoir’s dressed Odalisque and Modigliani’s naked woman is obvious, yet both are erotic and sensual in the sense of Baudelaire’s “Fleurs du Mal”, the morose beauty of a melancholic “fin-de-siecle”. In front of them rises a table with fruits, bread, jar, music notebook and pipe etc. melancholic in synthetic Cubistic style, a still life Georges Braque who was a pioneer in art movements with Picasso and Matisse.

The motive of reclining women has been a European tradition since the Italian Renaissance. Still life became a major theme only after Cezanne’s exploration. Braque was next to Cezanne and both had produced many masterpieces in still life. In this “Odalisque in Paris”, still life seems as important as figures reflecting one aspect of the conflict in the Belle-Epoque, between old and new, tradition and modernity, academic and avant-garde, authority and challenge.

– T. F. Chen