The Turkish Bath is a tondo format painting signed and dated in 1862 by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, a French neoclassical painter. The painting features a nude woman in the center with other women surrounding her, along with a lute player in the foreground. Ingres explored similar motifs in earlier paintings including The Valpinçon Bather and La Grande Odalisque. He combined various artistic studies into a formal symphony of lines, arabesques, and curves to create this masterpiece.
Ingres combined two subjects that were close to his heart: nudity and the Orient. His use of curvature emphasizes sensuality while also showcasing his incredible skill as an artist. The cramped spatial depth multiplies plentiful flesh and creates tension within the picture plane.
Commissioned by Prince Napoleon around 1848, the painting was delivered in 1859. But upon its release, it created controversy due to its depictions of nudity and orientalism. Eventually acquired by a Turkish diplomat, it remains one of Ingres’s most famous works.
