'In the Harem', Orientalist oil painting by Giménez-Martín

This large landscape-format painting depicts a popular subject of Orientalist painting, the harem. The harem was a room in the Muslim household which was reserved for women. It was often imagined by male European Orientalist painters, who were denied access to this room, as an exotic place where odalisques (female concubines) bathed, relaxed and amused themselves.

This painting depicts a beautiful young odalisque reclining on a bed in the left foreground, which is draped with sumptuous fabrics and placed on a tiger skin rug. In the left background, three young women sit on a bench and play musical instruments, watched over by a eunuch on the right. A man, possibly the sultan, is pictured entering the room via an arched doorway in the centre distance. The figures occupy a large space, the walls of which are lavishly decorated with wooden fretwork panels and painted tiles, as well as crossed flags and shields. The room is richly furnished with rugs, a painted side table, golden huqqa and ball incense burner. Pink rose petals are scattered across the floor, having fallen from a nearby plant. The painting portrays a room full of beauty, sweet sounds and rich fragrances.

The canvas is signed in the lower left corner, ‘Gimenez Martin/ Paris’. Juan Giménez-Martín was an important Spanish-born Orientalist painter who was active in France in the late 19^th Century. The canvas is displayed in a giltwood frame which is beautifully carved with geometric patterns.

Canvas: Height 57cm, width 101cm, depth 2cm
Frame: Height 73cm, width 117cm, depth 7cm