Etienne Alphonse Dinet

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Status, price and estimation of the artist Etienne-Alphonse Dinet

Price of a painting: 800 – 785,900 €.

Price of a drawing: 500 – 21,000 €.

Estimation of a print: 150 – 1,500 €.

If you would like to have a work by Etienne-Alphonse Dinet appraised, our experts will take care of everything.

Etienne Alphonse Dinet and the Orient

Etienne Alphonse Dinet is an orientalist painter and lithographer born in 1861, having lived mainly in Algeria. He called himself Nasr ad Dine after his conversion to Islam. He began his artistic studies at the Paris School of Fine Arts and in the studio of Pierre-Victor Gallad, then at the Julian Academy. He discovered Algeria thanks to a scholarship he was awarded in 1884 and which enabled him to make his first trip to the south of Algeria. This trip marked him forever.

He set up his first Algerian workshop in 1900 in Biskra and it was the making of the painting The Arab in Prayer that led him to convert to Islam.

The discovery of the desert

At the beginning of his career, the first paintings he produced dealt with religion (The Golgotha, Saint Julien l’Hospitalier), but he broke with this iconography when he discovered the desert.

From the 1880s onwards, Dinet turned his attention to the history and traditions of the town of Bou-Saâda, considered to be the “gateway” to the Sahara. It captures the tones and light of the south in a remarkable way. At first, he produced portraits referencing ethnography, scenes of daily life and landscapes, but he also portrayed his family circle, including his only sister, Jeanne, who also wrote his biography.

Success in his lifetime

His paintings were sold by major galleries such as Georges Petit, Paul Durand-Ruel and Allard. He was a well-known painter during his lifetime thanks to his canvases depicting naked women, which he painted as if he was taking them from life, with almost bitter colours and tones. The spontaneity of his representations even led some researchers to question their authenticity, as they found these paintings too exotic. In reality, and quite the contrary, Dinet valuably made a culture that had until now been largely ignored visible, and it was a culture he felt very close to. Some of the paintings are clearly erotic.

Formally, Dinet was inspired by realism, but he developed a palette of extremely rich, contrasting colours in parallel, which were sometimes even comparable to those of Fauvist painters.

Following his death on 24 December 1969 in Paris, Bou-Saâda created the Nasreddine-Dinet Museum to honour his memory. In France, the Musée d’Orsay exhibits Dinet’s first paintings and that of his maturity. The Louvre Museum also keeps some of his works in the graphic arts department – some 270 drawings.

Recognising Etienne-Alphonse Dinet’s signature

Like many artists, Dinet did not sign all of his works. However, you will find below an example of the signatures to give you an idea. Variations of these signatures do exist, do not hesitate to contact one of our experts to formally authenticate a signature.

Appraising and selling a piece by Etienne-Alphonse Dinet

If you own a piece by Etienne-Alphonse Dinet or any other object, ask for a free estimate via our online form.

You will then be contacted by a member of our team of experts and auctioneers to give you an independent view of the market price of your piece. In the context of a possible sale, our specialists will also advise you on the different options available to sell your work at the best price.