By Mrinalini Pandey

Writer and Translator

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European imperialism in the Global South was justified and glorified by many in the West. Racist ideology, such as Kipling’s “white man’s burden”, was used by Europeans to clear their conscience of the crimes and injustices committed by them in various colonies. However, Algeria, which endured over a century of brutal French rule until 1962, became the permanent residence of Etienne Dinet, a painter of the “Orientalist” school who truly knew and loved the region he studied and painted. The artist not only embraced what was then known as the “Orient” with open arms but also planted his roots firmly in the Algerian Town of Bou Saada, which eventually became the artist’s permanent place of residence. 

Alphonse Etienne Dinet was born in 1861 in Paris and, when aged ten, joined the prestigious Lycee Henri IV, and later went on to study in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (Karaoglu, 2018, p. 11). He visited Algeria for the first time in the year 1884. After his first trip, Dinet decided to come back the next year, and this time after securing a handsome scholarship. For the next three years of his life, he kept coming back to Bou Saada, during summers, while painting vivid scenes of the landscapes and realistic depictions of its inhabitants. Dinet belonged to the celebrated circle of French Orientalist painters which included stalwarts like Paul Leroy and Baron Arthur Chasseriau.

Through his paintings, he beautifully depicted desert life, with an obvious touch of realism in showing the candid emotions of people. Roger Benjamin writes, “Dinet painted the religious life, daily habits and fables dear to the desert people with a familiarity and sympathy unparalleled in the history of Orientalism” (Benjamin, 2001, p. 20). He made sincere efforts to make the French people understand and appreciate the Algerians and the manner in which they led their lives. He “helped facilitate cultural exchanges from the other side of the porous Orientalist divide,” by teaching the local and indigenous artists the techniques employed by European artists. He is known to have helped Mohammed Racim (father of Algerian miniature) achieve “the correct perspective used in figurative scenes which Racim inserted into his elaborate arabesque borders” (Benjamin, 2001, p. 29). Racim wrote about Dinet, crediting him with all the support he extended as “Dinet’s presence was important to me” (Beaulieu & Roberts, 2002, p. 7). 

Dinet’s love and fascination for the Orient can be understood by the fact that he learnt Arabic and made Bou Saada his permanent home. One of the major turning points in Dinet’s life was his encounter with the religious scholar Sliman ben Ibrahim who eventually became his closest friend and companion. Through Sliman, Dinet learnt about Arab culture, including various fascinating legends, which eventually culminated in the publishing of illustrated books by the duo. Their most celebrated project was the illustrated biography of Prophet Mohammed, published in 1918 (Beaulieu & Roberts, 2002, p. 7). It is believed that this was the first biography of the Prophet Mohammed written in French.  Another important project undertaken by Dinet along with Sliman was L’Orient Vu de l’Occident (“The Orient Seen from the Occident”). It is asserted by many scholars that this was the first book which used the term “Islamophobia”, without going into much detail about it. Seyda Nur Karaoglu writes, that “Often, Dinet uses the terms “Islamophobe,” “bitter enemy of Islam,” “ignorant” interchangeably to generally designate anyone who makes incorrect generalizations about Muslims, misinterprets the religion of Islam or displays an unfounded hostility towards it” (Karaoglu, 2018, p. 25).

Sliman’s religious leanings had a huge impact on Dinet, who inculcated in his heart love and reverence towards the Islamic faith. During the latter phase of his life, he in fact converted to Islam, changed his first name to Nasreddine, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca (Buonaventura, 1998, p. 93). Dinet wrote Le pèlerinage à la maison sacrée d’Allah (The Pilgrimage to the Sacred House of Allah), where he states that his conversion to Islam was the consequence of “thirty years of study, meditation and contemplation”. In the Preface, he wrote that this “small book, by restoring the truth about the pilgrimage to Mecca [dissipates] the misunderstandings that are dangerous to the future of peace in the orient, and thus contribute, in a modest measure, to the establishment of a cordial understanding between Judaism, Christianity and Islam, an understanding that civilization has a duty to forge” (Karaoglu, 2018, p. 19).

Dinet was actively involved in the political arena as well; he made untiring efforts against French colonial rule and therefore was labelled as a “militant artist.” He spoke in favor of Algerian civil rights. He was also disturbed by the way the French government treated Muslims. “He made relentless efforts in securing an official ceremony by the French government to honor and recognize the Muslim soldiers who fought for France during World War I.” Karaoglu writes that the artist was an important part of the project of Grande Mosquée de Paris, the oldest mosque of Metropolitan France. The construction of this mosque was undertaken by the French government as a way to express its gratitude towards the Muslims of Africa who defended its borders during World War I (Karaoglu, 2018, p. 14).

He was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1896. He died in 1930 and his funeral was attended by 5,000 people in Bou Saada, testament to his fame and popularity in that part of Algeria. Fredrick W. Morton wrote in his article, ‘Etienne Dinet, Painter of the Orient,’ published in 1904, “no other painter had evidenced such an intimate understanding of the East, no other has caught and recorded with such fidelity the spirit of the Orient…. Others have essayed the same task with halting, often ludicrous results—they have given us transcripts of the East from an Occidental standpoint. Dinet gives us the East as an Oriental sees it” (Morton, 1904, p 251).  

Bibliography:

Beaulieu, J. & Roberts, M. (2002). Orientalism’s Interlocutors: Painting, Architecture, Photography. United States of America: Duke University Press.

Benjamin, R. (2001). Orientalism: Delacrois to Klee. Australia: Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Buonaventura, W. (1998).  Serpent of the Nile: Women and Dance in the Arab World. New York: Interlink Books.

Karaoglu, S.N. (2018). A Definition of Islamophobia in Etienne Dinet’s The Pilgrimage to the Sacred House of Allah. Thesis. The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University.

Morton, F.W. (1904). “Etienne Dinet, Painter of the Orient”. Brush and Pencil. 13(4).