For many years I thought that this painting was called "The Peacock Fan." But I found out that it is in fact called La Grande Odalisque. It hangs in the Louvre and when I was there, sometime in the '70's, I bought a copy and had it framed. It is a large painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, painted in 1814. It's about 9 feet by 14 and it shows a concubine in Turkey awaiting her master. Incidentally the difference between a concubine and a prostitue is that whereas a prositute sells sex for money, the concubine sells love.
Anatomically the woman is incorrect, and has about five extra vertibraes, according to experts; also the left arm is much shorter than her right. However there is something about the steady gaze and the surroundings that have always appealed to me.
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