It is important to remember what we are looking at and that is not necessarily a true account of a Turkish concubine, but one embellished with the French’s cultural ideas and concepts of the subject matter.
The painting depicts a nude woman half lying down and leaning on her left elbow on a divan. She is reclining with her back to us, the viewers, but her head is turned so that she is peering over her right shoulder, looking directly in our direction.
Ingres’ mainly applied curved lines (otherwise described as “sinuous”), especially noticeable in the unnatural curvature of the figure’s back, as mentioned above, but also echoed in the curves from the folds of the drapery and sheets.