Theodoros Ralli

Ralli's scenes depict daily activities within the scope of the exoticism of Greek, Turkish and Arab genre scenes. His background as a student of the great French academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme would pave the way for his interest in meticulous images of Near Eastern sensuality.

In the present work, the Turkish woman's softly flushed cheeks and heavy-lidded dark eyes, as well as her exposed décolleté, framed by lace and nearly transparent veils, create the aura of eroticism often seen within Ralli's oeuvre. The woman turns coyly away from the viewer to the velvet richness of the background, one side bathed in shadow, the whole composition dominated by her arch movement. The variety of painstakingly rendered textures and tones reveal the academic training that Ralli received. The elegant precision of decorative elements such as the woman's veil and the metal plaques of her headpiece highlight the realism inherent in Ralli's paintings.