In The Harem, An Odalisque | John William Waterhouse | Painting Art Print | Wall Frame

This rediscovery is a rare example of Waterhouse’s early work, full of spontaneous charm and luscious colour. Waterhouse had painted Middle Eastern subjects in the earliest years of his career in the 1870s.

However, the style of the this picture is more sophisticated and it is likely that it dates to the first half of the next decade. The resemblance of the model in the present picture to the prophetess in Consulting the Oracle of 1884 (Tate), suggests that it is contemporary. The two pictures share an Orientalist setting with pierced woodwork, hanging lamps, Turkish carpets and a striped banquette. Whilst the oracular subject was a large, dramatic and rather macabre picture, the present painting is more light-hearted and more easily understood. The subject of a woman dressing her hair was explored in At Capri of 1889 and prefigured the artist’s A Mermaid painted in 1900 (Diploma Collection, Royal Academy of Art). There are two similar pictures by Waterhouse, An Eastern Interior with a Seated Girl dated 1886 (Bonham’s, 12 December 2013, lot 63) and An Eastern Reminiscence (private collection) which probably also dates to the early 1880s. The inclusion of the potted star-gazer lily and the qabqab (wooden Ottoman stilt shoes) inlaid with mother-of-pearl, adds to the exoticism of the painting.