Rauchende Orientalin (Smoking Oriental)

The Orient is a broad term referring to one half of the globe and therefore, the title doesn’t easily suggest where this bold woman subject could be from—bare bosomed and smoking a cigarette with a devil-may-care attitude, she is an epitome of womankind’s deepest aspirations, as relevant today as when the work was made by H. V. Pedersen. Her skirt, jewels and hair colour mark her as Indian or a West Asian but she remains bold for all ages in what she symbolises. The work was clearly made for the western male gaze, to be titillated by absolute exotica from the East.