Portrait d'Angèle Delasalle

Portrait d'Angèle Delasalle (1900), held in the Petit Palais (Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris), depicts a subject from the Parisian cultural world — Angèle Delasalle (1867–1938) was a French painter who studied with Benjamin-Constant himself at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he taught for many years. The portrait of a female student by her teacher carries significant meaning in the context of the late nineteenth-century French art world, when women's access to formal artistic training was expanding: Delasalle was among the women who gained admission to the previously male-only École des Beaux-Arts when it opened to women in 1897, and Benjamin-Constant was among the teachers who supported their inclusion. Painting her portrait in 1900 was an act of professional recognition and perhaps personal esteem, documenting his relationship with one of his most accomplished female students. Delasalle went on to a successful career as a portraitist and Salon exhibitor, making the relationship between teacher and student depicted in this work a meaningful chapter in the history of French women's artistic education.

Benjamin-Constant applies his full portrait technique to this artist-sitter, with particular attention to the quality of intelligence and artistic consciousness visible in the face — appropriate for a subject he knew as a fellow professional. The handling is characteristic of his mature portraiture: blended, sensitive work in the face, more free and expressive in the costume and background.