The Favorite of the Emir

Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant (1845-1902) was a French painter known for the Orientalist subjects that make him one of the most important French Orientalist painters of the late 19th century. The Favorite of the Emir from c. 1879 depicts an Orientalist subject in the colorful, dramatic manner that distinguishes Constant's best work from the more academic Orientalist painting of his contemporaries. The c. 1879 date places this in Constant's most productive Orientalist period, when he was producing the colorful, dramatic paintings of North African and Middle Eastern subjects that are his most accomplished works, and the favorite of the Emir subject shows his talent for combining dramatic narrative with the colorful detail of Orientalist painting.

The Favorite of the Emir is important in the history of French Orientalist painting because it demonstrates the colorful, dramatic manner that Constant brought to Orientalist subjects as one of the most important French Orientalist painters of the late 19th century. Constant's Orientalist paintings—combining dramatic narrative with the colorful detail of North African and Middle Eastern subjects—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in French Orientalist painting, and the c. 1879 painting shows this tradition at its most colorful and dramatic.

The Favorite of the Emir is Constant's colorful French Orientalism: an Orientalist subject rendered in the dramatic manner of one of the most important French Orientalist painters of the late 19th century. The c. 1879 painting shows the combination of dramatic narrative with colorful North African and Middle Eastern detail that made French Orientalist painting so popular.