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“Emperor Justinian,” created by Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant in 1886, is a towering 13.3- by 22-foot oil on canvas piece depicting the Byzantine Emperor atop his throne in the company of his consuls.

This exhibition offers visitors a glimpse of a wide swath of Benjamin-Constant’s work.

It also offers subtle critiques, like new pieces by the contemporary female artists Yasmina Bouziane, Lalla Essaydi and Majida Khattari, who were commissioned to respond to Benjamin-Constant’s oeuvre.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, France, are collaborating on a retrospective for the Parisian muralist and portraitist Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, who depicted his own Moroccan artifacts in his works.

It seems Benjamin-Constant is painting it—and I thought the others would never come.