01 Painting by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 73

Théodore Chassériau, (1819–1856) 

Ali-Ben-Hamet, Caliph of Constantine and Chief of the Haractas, followed by his Escort, c. 1845

Oil on canvas

Height: 325 cm (10.6 ft); Width: 259 cm (101.9 ″)

Musée de l'Histoire de France, Château de Versailles

The Haraktas or Haractas are a group of Berber-speaking tribes living in the Wilaya of Oum El Bouaghi and Batna. During the Ottoman period , the tribe was the largest tribe in eastern Algeria.

Constantine passed under Arab-Muslim administration around the year 700, and saw its population gradually convert to Islam. 

France embarked on the conquest of Algeria, starting in 1830. Inaugurated by Charles X, pursued by Louis-Philippe I this colonial adventure takes place in a difficult military context. In spite of their technical superiority, the French troops are confronted with fierce local resistance, of which Emir Abd El-Kader is the figurehead. Despite the Treaty of Tafna in 1837 which established a state of peace and a division of sovereignty between the French and Abd El-Kader, hostilities resume after the violation of this agreement by Louis-Philippe who orders the capture of Constantine. Originally from Constantine, Caliph Ali Ben Ahmed played a key role in these circumstances. His rallying to France was a valuable support for the control of the region. 

Théodore Chassériau made this painting on the occasion of the coming to Paris of Ali-Ben-Hamet. The caliph, impressed by the quality of the work invited the painter to Algeria where he stayed during the year 1846. More on this painting

Théodore Chassériau (September 20, 1819 – October 8, 1856) was a French Romantic painter noted for his portraits, historical and religious paintings, allegorical murals, and Orientalist images inspired by his travels to Algeria.

Chassériau was born in El Limón, Samaná, in the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic). In December 1820 the family left Santo Domingo for Paris, where the young Chassériau soon showed precocious drawing skills. He was accepted into the studio of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in 1830, at the age of eleven, and became the favorite pupil of the great classicist, who regarded him as his truest disciple.

After Ingres left Paris in 1834 to become director of the French Academy in Rome, Chassériau fell under the influence of Eugène Delacroix, whose brand of painterly colorism was anathema to Ingres. Chassériau's art has often been characterized as an attempt to reconcile the classicism of Ingres with the romanticism of Delacroix. He first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1836, and was awarded a third-place medal in the category of history painting. In 1840 Chassériau travelled to Rome and met with Ingres, whose bitterness at the direction his student's work was taking led to a decisive break.

In 1846 Chassériau made his first trip to Algeria. From sketches made on this and subsequent trips he painted such subjects as Arab Chiefs Visiting Their Vassals and Jewish Women on a Balcony...

After a period of ill health, exacerbated by his exhausting work on commissions for murals to decorate the Churches of Saint-Roch and Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, Chassériau died at the age of 37 in Paris, on October 8, 1856. More on Théodore Chassériau

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