Benjamin-Constant (Jean-Joseph-Benjamin Constant) | Judith

Additional Images (2)

Judith

Artist: Benjamin-Constant (Jean-Joseph-Benjamin Constant) (French, Paris 1845–1902 Paris)

Date: possibly ca. 1886

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 47 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (120.7 x 80 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Gift of J. E. Gombos, 1959

Accession Number: 59.185

Not on view

Gallery Label Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

Painted in glinting red and gold tones, this exotic figure attests to Benjamin-Constant’s esteem for Delacroix; following in the older artist’s footsteps, he had traveled to Spain and Morocco in the early 1870s, a voyage that yielded inspiration, and props, for many of his pictures. Here, Judith, the Old Testament heroine who saved her besieged city by beheading the general Holofernes, appears as an avenging beauty, proudly bearing her sword. Benjamin-Constant returned repeatedly to this dramatic subject, including another version shown at the Salon of 1886.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Signed (upper left): Benj-Constant
Provenance

Hammeraly family; Mrs. Oliver Crocker Sturns, Boston; her brother, Mr. Smith, Vermont; his son, Curtiss R. Smith, Vermont (sold to Gombos); J. E. Gombos, Upper Montclair, N.J. (until 1959)
Exhibition History

San Jose Museum of Art. "Americans Abroad: Painters of the Victorian Era," December 5, 1975–January 10, 1976, unnumbered cat.
References

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX Century." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2, New York, 1966, pp. 206–7, ill., comment that it seems to portray Judith after the beheading of Holofernes; mention two other versions of Judith by the artist [see Notes], as well as a possible third version exhibited in the Salon of 1886; note that the plaster frame is inscribed in Arabic "There is no God but God" and is probably original.

Art d'Orient, tableaux orientalistes. Hôtel Drouot, Paris. May 14, 2001, p. 40, under no. 94, notes that Benjamin-Constant painted numerous versions of this theme.

19th Century European Art. Christie's, London. June 17, 2004, p. 119, under no. 105.
Notes

Benjamin-Constant painted several versions of this subject, including one shown in the Salon of 1886 and another formerly with the dealer Goupil & Cie, Paris (1885–87; stock no. 17442; sold to Albert Fillion). There is, in the Department of European Paintings files, a photograph of what appears to be a version of the subject in a frame similar to the Museum's (Haber collection, Paramus, N.J., in 1964).