Regnault was an academic painter. He was under the influence of the
             European academies, which provided formal training for many artists. But
             while it generally demonstrated a "highly finished style" as well as use of
             historical and mythological subjects portrayed in a moralistic tone,
             (Artcyclopedia Web site) Salome meets only two parts of that definition.
             It is painted in a highly finished style, and Salome was an historical
             figure. But it seems to lack a moralistic tone. In fact, it strays
             somewhat from the purely academic and the purely historical in that it also
             exemplifies the Orientalism that was then a part of popular culture.
             Arguably, the Orientalism has been influenced by the access to Japan that
             was quite recent when Regnault painted this portrait, and there was much
             more travel to the near and middle East, as well. All things exotic
             appealed to the public during that era, and painters were also likely to be
             influenced by popular taste, just as they in turn influenced it.
             Because Regnault was an academic painter, it is a departure that he
             would depict a woman, even an historical figure, in such an aggressive
             pose, and with her hair untamed. In fact, the draping of her clothing is
             so form-following, that the picture borders on the erotic, especially for
             its time. The figure's hand on her hip, the slight parting of her legs to
             hold the basin would all have been highly suggestive to Regnault's more
             academic peers and to a moralistic public. Her bare legs and feet, and her
             actions speak loudly of the difference between this middle-Eastern woman
             and the chaste, generally upper-class women who posed for their portraits,
             or whose ideal of beauty was painted into figures in narrative paintings by
             This figure looks directly at the viewer, challenging the viewer to
             come closer. Her slight smile and full lips seem to imply a generous
             nature; her half-hidden...