Nasreddine Dinet (born as Alphonse-Étienne Dinet on 28 March 1861 – 24 December 1929, Paris) was a Frenchorientalist painter and was one of the founders of
the Société des Peintres Orientalistes [Society for French Orientalist Painters]. He became so enchanted with Algeria and its culture, that he converted to Islam, and was proficient in Arabic. In addition to his paintings, he translated Arabic literature into French.
Biography
Born in Paris, Alphonse-Étienne Dinet, was the son of a prominent French judge, Philippe Léon Dinet and Marie Odile Boucher.[1] In 1865 his sister Jeanne, who would be his biographer, was born.[2]
Dinet made his first trip to Bou Saâda by the Ouled Naïl Range in northern Algeria in 1884, with a team of entomologists. The following year he made a second trip on a government scholarship, this time to Laghouat.[1] At that time he painted his first two Algerian pictures: les Terrasses de Laghouat and l’Oued M’Sila après l’orage.
In 1903 he bought a house in Bou Saâda and spent three quarters of each year there.[1] Dinet became so enchanted with North Africa and its culture, that he eventually converted to Islam.[4] He announced his conversion to Islam in a private letter of 1908, and completed his formal conversion in 1913 in Zawiyet El Hamel, upon which he changed his name to Nasr’Eddine Dinet.[5][6] In 1929 he and his wife undertook the Hajj to Mecca.[5] In July 1896, he was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and participated in the international exhibition of the Centenary of Lithography (Paris).[7] The respect he earned from the natives of Algeria was reflected by the 5,000 who attended his funeral on 12 January 1930 in Bou Saâda.[5] There he was eulogized by the former Governor General of AlgeriaMaurice Viollette.[5]
Work
Compared to modernist painters such as Henri Matisse, who also visited northern Africa in the first decade of the 20th century, Dinet's paintings are extremely conservative. They are highly mimetic, indeed ethnographic, in their treatment of their subject.[8]
Dinet's understanding of Arab culture and language set him apart from other orientalist artists because as an Arabic speaking visitor, he was able to find nude models in rural Algeria where the 'rule of the veil' was less frequently observed.[9] Before 1900, most of his works could be characterized as "anecdotal genre scenes".[5] As he became more interested in Islam, he began to paint religious subjects more often.[5] He was active in translating Arabic literature into French, publishing a translation of an Arab epic poem by Antarah ibn Shaddad in 1898.[10]
Legacy
His life and work have been subject of several books, namely:
Denise Brahimi and Koudir Benchikou, La Vie et l'oeuvre d' Etienne Dinet, [volume 2 in the series, Les Orientalistes], Paris, ACR edition, 1984 (Dinet’s Catalogue raisonné)
J. M. Blades (ed.), The Art of Etienne Dinet, Shafik Gabr Collection, 2018
^Jeanne Dinet Rollince, La Vie de E. Dinet, GP. Maisonneuve, 1938
^Jonathan M. Bloom, Sheila Blair (Eds), The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic art and Architecture, [Volume 2], p. 50 2009 "He became so interested in North Africa that on his return to Paris in 1887 he founded the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français, with Léonce Bénédite (1859–1925) as its president. He then studied Arabic and eventually converted to"
^Bloom, J.M. and Blair, S., The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture, Volume 2, 2009, p.5
^ abcdefBenjamin, in Edwards and Wood (2004) p. 89
^Edwards, S. and Wood, P. (eds), Art of the Avant-gardes, Yale University Press, 2004, pp 88-89
^Pouillon, François (1997) Les deux vies d’Étienne Dinet, peintre en Islam: L’Algerie et l’heritage colonial. Editions Balland, Paris
References
Benjamin, Roger (2004). "Chapter 3: Orientalism, modernism and indigenous identity". In Edwards, Steve; Wood, Paul (eds.). Art of the Avant-Gardes. New Haven: Yale University Press in association with The Open University. ISBN0-300-10230-5.
François Pouillon, Les Deux vies d'Etienne Dinet, Balland, 1997 ISBN2-7158-1142-X