 He founded the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français in 1893 with Alphonse-Étienne Dinet.This society was formed on the back of the success of Bénédite's exhibition, "First Retrospective and Current Exhibition of French Orientalist Painters" in 1892 and was largely responsible for giving Orientalist art recognition as a distinct art movement.He became the Society's inaugural President and remained in that role until his death in 1925.