On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Afternoon in the Harem
Benjamin-Constant (Jean-Joseph-Benjamin Constant) French
Not on view
This work, which depicts two idle members of a harem whiling away an afternoon, is typical of Benjamin-Constant’s distinctly theatrical treatments of Orientalist imagery. It was not the artist’s intention to illustrate a narrative. Rather, the subject is meant to conjure an exotic world like the one evoked by Victor Hugo in his 1828 poem “La sultane favorite”: “The sultan must sultanas have, / As gems must deck the poignard’s hilt.”
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