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Jacqueline Marval, Les Odalisques, 1902-1903

Dulwich Picture Gallery · Dulwich

Jacqueline Marval

Upcoming2 February 2027 – 9 May 2027·Ticketed — see website

The first UK museum exhibition dedicated to French painter Jacqueline Marval (1866-1932), bringing together over 40 paintings and lithographs, many never before exhibited, including one of the earliest known female nude self-portraits.

Book tickets

Preview: written before the show opened

In Les Odalisques (1902 to 1903), five women share one interior: three sit nude, one reclines on her elbow and one stands holding a tray. It is a brothel scene, and according to the Comité Jacqueline Marval the painter used herself as the model for all five. She showed it at the Salon des Indépendants in 1903, and Apollinaire later wrote that it "deserves to survive".

It comes to Dulwich for the first UK museum exhibition of Marval (1866 to 1932): more than 40 paintings and selected lithographs, many never exhibited before. Born Marie-Joséphine Vallet, she built her new name from those two and worked in Belle Époque Paris alongside Matisse, Van Dongen and Picasso. You also meet her in L'Odalisque au guépard (1900), the nude self-portrait the Gallery counts among the earliest known by a woman.

Ticket prices hadn't been published by October 2026. Friends of the Gallery go free and get priority booking.

Look for

  • Les Odalisques

    Five women in one room, three seated nude, one reclining on her elbow and one standing with a tray, all painted from Marval herself.

  • L'Odalisque au guépard

    A nude woman reaches out to the cat of the title while a parrot perches at the left: Marval's 1900 self-portrait, one of ten paintings Ambroise Vollard bought from her.

Good for

  • Locals Who've Seen It All
  • Nerding Out

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