In turn, and often by the same people, he was adored and execrated, rejected and claimed, abandoned and sought after.
We saw in him all the beauties of the Maghreb, but also a hyperkitsch orientalist.
Étienne Dinet (1861-1929) painted the fellah and the houri of an Algeria then colonized.
However, from its inception, the FLN has considered him - and still considers him - as a cantor of the nation.
From Algiers to Tamanrasset, some of his paintings appear reproduced on postage stamps.
The presidential office is decorated with one.
As for the international market, he neglected it for a long time before revising his opinion when the Gulf countries, from the 1980s, propelled his rating to astonishing heights.
Today, finally, some feminists agree with the opinion of the most prudish Muslims when they describe his nudes of young Berbers stealing a moment of relaxation between their daily tasks as voyeuristic.
“On a terrace, a day of celebration in Bou-Saâda”, by Etienne Dinet, 1906. Oil on canvas.
© Fabre Museum of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole /Frédéric Jaulmes
For all these reasons, this artist, to whom the Arab World Institute devotes…
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