In the only self-portrait of Beauford that has a narrative quality, he sits with a guitar in his lap and a naked woman lounging to his right. The heavy paint and gestural brushstrokes in Self-Portrait with Odalisque are reminiscent of Van Gogh, an artist by whom he was heavily inspired in the 1940s. Beauford looks at the viewer with a blank stare, his facial expression and body language giving no indication as to why an odalisque is included in his self-portrait.

Odalisques are chambermaids for women in Turkish households, yet the term took on the meaning of “concubine” when Western cultures started depicting what they deemed “oriental” and “exotic” practices in their art starting in the 18th and 19th centuries. Female nudity is unheard of in Beauford’s paintings, making the topless odalisque in this particular portrait that much more curious. It is perhaps a nod to artists he admired and their portrayals of odalisques, or a practice in female figure drawing that he was uncomfortable and embarrassed by at his New York art schools and societies.