Odalisque (Woman of the Harem), Brassaï

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Brassaï altered this photograph by drawing on glass and then using the marked piece of glass as the negative to make this print (a process called cliché-verre). An odalisque is a female slave or concubine in a harem, which is a house or section of a house reserved for female members of a Moslem household.
Brassaï has here joined other European artists who since the early nineteenth century had used this artistic motif. The “odalisque” motif allowed the artist to create an image of uninhibited display of female sensuality while positioning such licentiousness safely outside of Europe itself, in a foreign culture. By depicting women in this fashion, Brassai demeans both them and the culture he places them in