Artist · 7 prints
Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant Prints
About Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant
Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant was a French painter, born in Paris on 10 June 1845 and died there on 26 May 1902. He trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse from 1859, moved to Paris in 1866 on a municipal scholarship and studied with Alexandre Cabanel. In 1871 he spent about sixteen months in southern Spain and Morocco, making sketches and collecting objects he used in his paintings for years afterwards.
Benjamin-Constant made his name with Orientalist pictures: large, richly coloured scenes of North African and Ottoman courts, harems and guards. Key works include The Entry of Mehmed II into Constantinople (1876), now in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, and The Favorite of the Emir (around 1879), on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. After about 1880 he turned to portraits and large decorative paintings, including ceilings for the Hôtel de Ville and the Opéra-Comique in Paris. He taught at the Académie Julian, where his students included Henry Ossawa Tanner.
Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant prints: reproductions of paintings by the French Orientalist and history painter Benjamin-Constant, from his career in the late 19th century. The collection includes The Favorite of the Emir (1879), The Serbian Concubine (1876), Judith (1886), The Sultan's Tiger and A Janissary.
This selection centres on single figures and court scenes: guards, a janissary (a soldier of the Ottoman sultan's elite infantry), a concubine and the biblical heroine Judith, plus one large history scene, Saint John Chrysostom Exiled by the Empress Eudoxia. Most are dramatic, richly coloured figure paintings.
The bold figures and strong colour suit dining rooms, libraries and hallways, and the wider compositions work above a sofa or sideboard. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
