The Sultan's Tiger
Benjamin-Constant (Jean-Joseph-Benjamin Constant)
Date unknown · Oil on canvas · European Paintings
This painting appears to have been inspired by Victor Hugo’s 1827 poem “La Douleur du pacha” (The Pasha’s Grief). In the poem, a fictional Ottoman potentate forsakes his responsibilities, including his domains and his subjects, owing to implacable sadness: “What’s wrong with this pasha, whom war is calling / And who, sad and dreamy, cries like a woman? . . . / His Nubian tiger has died.”
- Artist
- Benjamin-Constant (Jean-Joseph-Benjamin Constant)
- Date
- Date unknown
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Department
- European Paintings
- Credit line
- Gift of Kenneth Jay Lane, 2017
