Benjamin Constant’s Odalisque depicts a young woman wearing a teal-colored silk robe and seated among patterned fabrics and pillows. This scene engages the Western fantasy of accessing—even just visually—the seraglio or harem, a private room reserved for wives and concubines. This European fantasy became a recurrent theme among 19th- and 20th-century French painters, including the modernist Henri Matisse (1869–1954). Though Constant initially created historical paintings, a visit to Spain in from 1870 to 1871 exposed him to artists who specialized in Moroccan subjects. Following a trip to northern Africa in 1872, he devoted his career to depicting both real and imaginary scenes set in such landscapes, including this example.