Luis Ricardo Faléro

Paris, Galerie Joseph Soustiel
Purchased from the above by the present owner

Paris, Galerie Joseph Soustiel, Mahmal et Attatichs, Peintres et voyageurs en Turquie, en Egypte et en Afrique du Nord, 1975, p. 68, no. 57, catalogued, discussed & illustrated 

Lynne Thornton, La Femme dans la peinture orientaliste, Paris, 1993, p. 120 (as L'Ensorceleuse)
Lynne Thornton, Women as portrayed in Orientalist painting, Courbevoie, 1994, p. 129, catalogued & illustrated
Eduardo Dizy Caso, Les Orientalistes de l'école espagnole, Paris, 1997, pp. 96-97, catalogued & illustrated (as L'Ensorceleuse)

Original canvas. There are only two flecks of minor retouching visible under ultraviolet light, near the feet of the figure. Apart from some very fine craquelure, this work is in very good overall condition, with soft, rich tones, and ready to hang. Held in a decorative, gold-painted moulded plaster and wood frame with a name plate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In Western Orientalist paintings female odalisques were often portrayed as languid creatures, surfeited with sensual pleasures. They were generally depicted nude or lightly clothed, as it was thought that they existed only to serve and satisfy their master. An image of ideal perfection and eroticism, The Enchantress glances at the viewer sideways.

The vertical Arabic inscription to the girl's right literally reads: 'He took drugs, the exhilaration / intoxication of death made this truth appear', and is a play on the 19th verse of the Koranic surat qâf which addresses the themes of death and the Last Judgment. By supressing the last words of the verse, and adding the prefix 'he took drugs', the meaning of the verse is reversed, from announcing death to suggesting an ecstatic narcotic-induced apparition. 

Born in Grenada into an aristocratic family, Louis Falero rejected his parents' choice of a nautical career for him and, having run away from home aged sixteen, walked all the way to Paris to study painting. Training initially as a portraitist, he soon developed a fascination for painting highly detailed renderings of the female nude. His hyper-realist style often set women in fantastic, mythological or Orientalist settings, as in the present work.