Opium

 

Le Grande Odalisque by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, The Louvre

The subject's elongated proportions, reminiscent of 16th-century Mannerist painters, reflect Ingres's search for the pure form of his model. However, the painting attracted wide criticism due to this lack of realism in these proportions. But, given how the duty of concubines were merely to satisfy the carnal pleasures of the sultan, this elongation of her pelvic area may have been a symbolic distortion by Ingres.