Twilight Hours 

Jean-Joseph-Benjamin Constant painted "Twilight Hours" sometime in the late nineteenth century, at a time when French Orientalism was in full swing. Here, Constant constructs a scene of leisure among women in North Africa, likely Algeria, a French colony at the time. The hazy light, luxurious textiles, and the women’s languid poses and gestures invite viewers into an imagined, sensual world. But these visual codes also carry colonial baggage. What are the power dynamics at play when a European artist depicts colonized peoples? How does this image participate in the larger European project of constructing the "Orient" as exotic, mysterious, and available for Western consumption? Historians might dig into travel narratives, colonial archives, and studies of Orientalism to better understand Constant's painting and its place in a complex web of cultural exchange and power. The beauty of art lies not just in the image itself, but in the social and institutional context in which it was created and viewed.