Woman and Little Girl of Constantine with a Gazelle

This 1849 Woman and Little Girl of Constantine with a Gazelle at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, depicts North African subjects encountered during Chassériau's 1846 visit to Algeria, translated into the studio paintings he produced in the three years after his return. The gazelle—symbol of North African beauty and grace—had been a recurring element in Orientalist painting since Delacroix's Moroccan journey of 1832. Chassériau's treatment of the woman and child avoids the harem exoticism of some French Orientalist work in favor of a more direct engagement with the dignity of individual North African subjects. Houston's holding documents American museum acquisition of French Romantic Orientalist painting.

The mother and child with their pet gazelle are rendered with Chassériau's warm North African palette and sensitive characterization, the intimate domestic scene treated with the empathy that distinguished his Orientalist work.