Antell's Odalisque

 

 

A view from the Ateneum's collection exhibition A Question of Time. On the left Gallen-Kallela's Démasquée, center Antell´s portrait by the same artist, on the right Hall's Odalisque. On top Charles-François Daubigny's The Rising Moon on the River Bank.

While exploring the archives of the National Gallery, I also got to see Richard Hall's painting Odalisque. It was on display in the Ateneum's exhibition The Question of Time, in a section on the H. F. Antell collection. Among others, the well-known Démasquée by Akseli Gallen-Kallela from 1888 was hung in the same set.

The collector Antell's order

Herman Frithiof Antell (1847-1893) was born in Vaasa and trained as a doctor. During his lifetime, he amassed important collections of coins, artefacts and works of art with the help of a million-dollar inheritance from his father. From 1877 he had a permanent residence in Paris.

Tuukka Talvio has written in Finnish a comprehensive and detailed biography of Antell (Frithiof Antell ja hänen testamenttinsa: museotoiminnan alkuajoilta Suomessa, 2025). In it, he describes Antell's final payment in 1883 for Richard Hall's painting La Baigneuse (The Bathmaid), and notes that the only painting of a woman owned by Antell is Odalisque. He assumes that the subject of the work changed after the note was made, "as seems to have happened from time to time with Antell's commissions."

 

Richard Hall: Odalisque, 1883

 

 

Languid Odalisque

Odalisque is an early painting by Hall - the artist was 23 years old when he made it. The painting shows a young woman lying on her side on oriental cushions. The woman's posture is languid, her head resting on the cushion with her dark hair spread out. The woman's only outfit is a pair of small ballerinas, which emphasises her nakedness. In the foreground is a water pipe with the end of the hose held in her hands. In the background, a fan and a sofa are covered with oriental textiles. Next to the woman is a metal rack.

The water pipe has been used over the ages not only for smoking tobacco but also for smoking drugs. The liberated smile of the woman suggests that she might have been ingesting something stronger than tobacco from the pipe. The mood of the painting is very informal and overtly sexual. The composition tells of a carefully prepared moment when the woman is at the disposal of the viewer - the man. The empty sofa in the background hints at what happens next.

 

Orientalism

The Turkish word odalik means chamber maid, but in 19th century Western art odalisque became common as a subject depicting an erotic harem woman. One of the most famous depictions of the subject is Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' Grande Odalisque of 1814. 

Orientalism was a simplified and exoticised image of the Orient created in Western culture. It was a popular subject in 19th century European art. Today, art history scholars are critical of Orientalism because it created a simplified and romanticised image of the Near and Far Eastern countries that had been colonised by European states.

The interior of Hall's Odaliski painting could be described as ‘poor man's Orientalism’, since the oriental atmosphere is created by the use of textiles, a water pipe and a house plant. Gunnar Berndtson's Almée, the Egyptian dancer, gives a very different impression. It is also part of the Antell collection. The painting was painted in 1883 in Cairo, where the artist was staying. The interior is meticulously depicted and shows the artist's familiarity with his subject.

Gunnar Berndtson:
Almée, an Egyptian Dancer, 1883

 

Erotic art collection

Susanna Pettersson has described in her book about Finnish 1900th centurt art collectors (Lumoutuneet. Tarinoita taiteen keräilystä 1800-luvun Suomessa, 2004) that Antell, who lived alone, was particularly fond of landscapes and female images that “fed sensual fantasies”. In addition to paintings, he collected in particular sculptures of Venus and Bacchus. Antell also had a collection of erotic literature in about seventy volumes. Hall's Odalisque was undoubtedly part of this collection.

Antell died in 1893, aged only 45, at his home in Paris. In his will, he left his fortune to the Finnish people and their representative nobility. Antell's art collection at the time consisted of 48 paintings and 28 sculptures. The original collection seems surprisingly small when you consider that Antell bought his first work of art in 1874. The collection included a total of two works by Richard Hall, one of which was an oil painting, The Head Study, from 1882. The collection of erotic literature was destroyed after the collector's death.

Photo sources:


A view from the Ateneum's collection exhibition A Question of Time.
Photo: Anni Saisto


Richard Hall: Odalisque, 1883
Oil on canvas, 52,5 × 81,5 cm
State deposit, 1893, A I 561
Finnish National Gallery Collection / Ateneum Art Museum, Antell collections, H. F. Antell Bequest
Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Jenni Nurminen

Gunnar Berndtson: Almée, an Egyptian Dancer, 1883
Oil on panel, 45 × 37,5 cm
Legacy to the Antell collection, 1920, A II 1396
Finnish National Gallery Collection / Ateneum Art Museum, Antell collections
Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Aaltonen