Joseph Sebastian Constantin

Artist Bio: Joseph Sebastian Constantin (1793-1864)

Joseph Constantin was a noted French genre painter. Constantin studied with his father Jean Antoine Constantin (1756-1844) who was also a well-known painter. Joseph Constantin exhibited annually with the Salon de Paris for many years and established himself as a popular painter of genre subjects.

During the period 1780-1850, Western society went through an abrupt change. The American and the French Revolutions turned European society on its end. In Britain, the Industrial Revolution changed the economic environment and quickly spread to other countries. The arts reflected this turmoil. Artists turned to depicting scenes of everyday life (genre) rather than painting portraits of royalty or Classical figures from Greek and Roman mythology. Genre painting became popular.

Ship in Distress shows a crowd of people on the wharf of a port on the coast of Normandy organizing the rescue of people on a ship in distress offshore. The painting was acquired by Col. Oland in the 1920s and remained in the family until recently.