Portret van Benjamin Constant 1840 - 1855

Nikolaus Hoff created this print of Benjamin Constant, the Franco-Swiss political activist and writer, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. Constant was a key figure in the liberal opposition to Napoleon Bonaparte, and his writings on political theory and individual liberty had a broad impact throughout Europe. Hoff's portrait can be seen as participating in a wider effort to promote and disseminate liberal ideas through printed images. Consider the role of the printing press as an information technology. How did its emergence enable new forms of political expression and organization? In order to answer these questions, historians often turn to a wide variety of sources, including pamphlets, newspapers, and other printed materials, as well as the private papers and correspondence of political figures like Constant. These kinds of archival sources help us understand the specific social and institutional contexts that gave rise to both political movements and artistic creations.