poignant, accouterments, odalisques. coming out

Europe’s ‘Tormented History’ Drives an Ambitious Macron Protégé

Clément Beaune, who had a double coming out as a gay man with Jewish roots, wants to be mayor of Paris, revive the center-left and build a united Europe.

Odalisque Seated with Raised Arms " 1923
By Henri Matisse
Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Odalisques were the most popular subject of Matisse's Nice period, during the 1920s. They appear in diverse poses in innumerable canvases: reclining, lounging, seated, or standing, frequently with their arms raised or folded behind the head. Dressed or semi-dressed in exotic attire, they are placed against a decorative background of richly patterned fabrics and oriental rugs and surrounded by oriental accouterments.

Henri Matisse (1869–1954)

The remarkable career of Henri Matisse, one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, spanned almost six and a half decades.

METMUSEUM.ORG

A haiku poem by Kazuyo Eguchi goes: "With its transparent life/ There are no secrets/ The jellyfish must hide."
Come to think of it, there is something poignant about how the jellyfish plays with water. I believe, feared and hated as it is by beachgoers, this creature must serve a useful purpose, being a small cog in the ecosystem. We cannot separate a sea friendly to jellyfish from a land that is friendly to humans.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 12(IHT/Asahi: August 13,2008)





One poignant story concerned the auction last week of the 26,000-square-foot, $21 million “dream house” of a couple in Connecticut who discovered, once they had built it and moved in, that the house’s style, proportions and accouterments — billiards room, theater and indoor Tuscan-style courtyard — did not fit them at all. “I would be happy with 3,500 square feet,” the wife was reported as saying.

odalisque

ˈəʊd(ə)lɪsk/

noun

historical

plural noun: odalisques

1. a female slave or concubine in a harem, especially one in the seraglio of the Sultan of Turkey.

   • an exotic, sexually attractive woman.

     "you do not have to learn to paint an odalisque like Matisse"

This article is about the women in the Ottoman Empire. For other uses, see Odalisque (disambiguation).

Marià Fortuny – The Odalisque

François Boucher, Ruhendes Mädchen (1751, Wallraf-Richartz Museum)

An odalisque (Ottoman Turkish: اوطه‌لق, Turkish: odalık) was a chambermaid or a female attendant in a Turkish seraglio, particularly the court ladies in the household of the Ottoman sultan. In western usage, the term came to mean the harem concubine, and refers to the eroticized artistic genre in which a woman is represented mostly or completely nude in a reclining position, often in the setting of a harem.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Grande Odalisque

Etymology[edit]

Odalisque painted by Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1874)

The word "odalisque" is French in form and originates from the Turkish odalık, meaning "chambermaid", from oda, "chamber" or "room". It can also be transliterated odahlic, odalisk, and odaliq.

Joan DelPlato has described the term's shift in meaning from Turkish to English and French:

The English and French term odalisque (rarely odalique) derives from the Turkish 'oda', meaning "chamber"; thus an odalisque originally meant a chamber girl or attendant. In western usage, the term has come to refer specifically to the harem concubine. By the eighteenth century the term odalisque referred to the eroticized artistic genre in which a nominally eastern woman lies on her side on display for the spectator.^[1]

Origin as the Turkish odalık[edit]

An odalik was a maid who tended to the harem, but she could eventually become a concubine. She was ranked at the bottom of the social stratification of a harem, serving not the man of the household, but rather, his concubines and wives as their personal chambermaid. Odalıklar were usually slaves given as gifts to the sultan by wealthy Turkish men. Generally, an odalık was never seen by the sultan but instead remained under the direct supervision of his mother, the Valide sultan.

If an odalık was of extraordinary beauty or had exceptional talents in dancing or singing, she would be trained as a possible concubine. If selected, an odalık trained as a court lady would serve the sultan sexually and only after such sexual contact would she change in status, becoming thenceforth one of the consorts of the sultan.

L'Odalisque à l'esclave Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Later Western usage of the term[edit]

A Reclining Odalisque, painted by Gustave Léonard de Jonghe, c. 1870

W. S. Gilbert refers to the "Grace of an odalisque on a divan" in Colonel Calverley's song "If You Want A Receipt For That Popular Mystery" from the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience.

In popular use, the word odalisque also may refer to a mistress, concubine or paramour of a wealthy man.

During the 19th century, odalisques became common figures in the artistic movement known as Orientalism, being featured in many erotic paintings from that era.

By the later 19th century, Turkish writers such as Melek Hanum used the word odalisque to refer to slave-concubines when writing in English:

If any lady possesses a pretty-looking slave, the fact soon gets known. The gentlemen who wish to buy an odalisque or a wife, make their offers. Many Turks, indeed, prefer to take a slave as a wife, as, in such case, there is no need to dread fathers, mothers, or brothers-in-law, and other undesirable relations.^[2]

In 2011, the Law Society of British Columbia brought a disciplinary hearing against an unnamed lawyer for referring to another lawyer's client as living with an odalisque. The Law Society found that the word's use, though an extremely poor choice, did not rise to the level of professional misconduct: “[28] … A lawyer, more than anyone, should be aware of the importance of using words carefully, alive to their nuances. Whether his failure to do so is the product of naïveté, as suggested by his counsel, stupidity or lack of care, it is at least unintelligent and certainly inexcusable.”^[3]

poignant

(poin'yənt)

adj.

1. 1. Profoundly moving; touching: a poignant memory. See synonyms at moving.
   2. Physically painful: “Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward” (Ambrose Bierce).
   3. Keenly distressing to the mind or feelings: poignant anxiety.
2. Piercing; incisive: poignant criticism.
3. 1. Neat, skillful, and to the point: poignant illustrations supplementing the text.
   2. Astute and pertinent; relevant: poignant suggestions.
4. Agreeably intense or stimulating: poignant delight.
5. Archaic.
   1. Sharp or sour to the taste; piquant.
   2. Sharp or pungent to the smell.

[Middle English poinaunt, from Old French poignant, present participle of poindre, to prick, from Latin pungere.]

━━ a. 痛烈な; 痛切な; 辛らつな; 感動的な; （舌に）ぴりっとする, （鼻に）つんとくる.

poignant
causing or having a particularly sharp feeling of sadness:
The photograph awakens poignant memories of happier days.
It is especially poignant that he died on the day before the wedding.

poignantly
adverb

poignancy
noun [U]
The poem has a haunting poignancy.

ac・cou・ter・ments

━━ n.pl. 服装; （軍服・武器以外の）軍装具; 〔戯言〕 （旅客などの）手回り品類.

accoutrement

əˈkuːtəm(ə)nt,-trə-/

noun

noun: accouterment

1. an additional item of dress or equipment.

   "the accoutrements of religious ritual"

accouterment

(ə-kū'tər-mənt, -trə-) or ac·cou·tre·ment n.

1. An accessory item of equipment or dress. Often used in the plural.
2. Military equipment other than uniforms and weapons. Often used in the plural.
3. accouterments or accoutrements Outward forms of recognition; trappings: cathedral ceilings, heated swimming pools, and other accoutrements signaling great wealth.
4. Archaic. The act of accoutering.