Underlying this nod to Orientalist tradition is a visual appeal to men who would sexually objectify her, shown in her provocative costuming. The diaphanous veil that falls from her brassiere suggests the form of her rear, without revealing it in its entirety. It is this possibility that one might catch a glimpse of her nude skin beneath the fabric that is meant to appeal to the male gaze, while still maintaining the overarching sense of mystery associated with the Orient. The costuming itself is important to the erotic image, as it distinguishes her from other women and identifies her as an exotic. This is a quality often considered appealing, and the costuming in this case is — as dance analyst Stavros Stavrou Karayanni puts it — “fetishistic” and essential to the process of sexual desire.^[22]

A Harem Beauty, 1899
(Oil on canvas, 109.9 x 95.3 cm)
BY Francisco Masriera y Manovens
PRIVATE COLLECTION
PHOTO: Christie’s

Regardless of its arousing effect, the veil that covers her body while still revealing what lies underneath is a common costume in Western depictions of the East — particularly in harem imagery. This is something she must have been well aware of. Under this same umbrella, she would have had knowledge of harems, Salome, and the Oriental dancing woman.^[23] Many paintings — such as Francisco Masriera y Manovens’ A Harem Beauty — depict harem girls lounging about in elaborate costumes made of sheer material. These sensual images had become a norm for early twentieth century Parisians.

Had Mata Hari taken this image dressed in a contemporary Western style and performed without the protection of an Eastern persona, the public would have had a poor reaction to her erotic spectacles. She would have risked being arrested for public indecency. By conjuring up associations with fine art, she wove herself into a tapestry of previously established motifs, thus making her performances socially acceptable and relevant to contemporary artistic discussion. Mata Hari artfully navigated these loopholes in the public’s sense of morality to perpetuate her sexualized, exotic persona while still maintaining the fickle attentions of Parisian high society.

Mata Hari as Odalisque

Another photograph taken in 1906 of the famous dancer recalls in part the previous photo examined, but is much more apparently posed and less kinetic in nature. With the exception of an anklet, she is nude from the waist down. As opposed to the veiled rear the viewer is presented with in the first photograph, this perspective allows the viewer to see every curve of her silhouette. She is again adorned in a studded brassiere, extravagant amounts of jewelry, and a headdress, adding an exotic theatricality to the image.

Laying down on the ground and facing the camera, Mata Hari stares dispassionately at the viewer. Her gaze is straightforward, but not quite confrontational — just as the stereotypical harem beauty is described. Once again there is a passive acknowledgement of the viewer, a toleration of the viewer’s gaze, without fully welcoming them to touch the beauty laid out before them. Her relaxed pose amid the fallen fabric and flowers mirror her gaze in the sense that it is neither modest nor tempting. In this way, it pulls characteristics from the harem sexual fantasy — the idea that desirable women are locked away from the world and saved exclusively for the touch of one man. She is posing here as forbidden fruit, ripe and ready for the taking, yet unable to be plucked. Her body is existing in a way that allows the viewer to enjoy the beauty of the shamelessly displayed, sexualized female form, much like the Oriental women vividly described dancing in travel narratives. Maxime du Camp, a traveler in the East, recounted the dance of an Oriental woman in this manner:

She is elegant… her markedly slitted eyes seem like silver globes inset with black diamonds, and they are veiled and languid like those of an amorous cat… She held out her two long arms, black and glistening, shaking them from shoulder to wrist with an imperceptible quivering… Sometimes she bent completely over backward, supporting herself on her hands in the position of the dancing Salome…^[24]

This description highlights particular aspects of the woman that could immediately be identified as foreign, such as the darkness of her skin. More sexual qualities of her are pointed out as well, such as likening her dance to that of Salome’s and describing her eyes as “veiled and languid like an amorous cat.” It is a sensual, vibrant description that pins the dancing Oriental woman as an object of sexual desire, while the male viewer watches without being able to access her physically. There are heavy voyeuristic undertones to travel narratives describing native female dancers, an undertone that blatantly appears in this portrait of Mata Hari. Not only is she connecting herself to Oriental dancers abroad, she is also placing herself under the male voyeurs’ watchful, but ever-reaching gaze.