The name of Dinet is always inseparable from the beautiful city of Bou-Saada.
Muse of the painter, of the orientalist movement, capital city of his light,
space of his conversion and finally his final resting place. Alphonse
Etienne Dinet was born in Paris in 1861 in a Bourgeois environment. After education
at the Paris Fine Arts school, crowned with success, he made his first trip
to Algeria. This time, he remained there five years and has real friendship
bonds particularly with Slimane Ben Brahim Baamar. Upon his return to Paris
in 1889, he presented at the universal exhibition a series of paintings made
in Bou-Saada, which won him a silver medal. Subjugated by the magnificence of
the South, he undertook in 1905 another trip and settled in Bou-Saada to live
there for good. Dinet regularly participated in exhibitions, especially those
focusing on orientalism with his colleagues Delacroix or Guillaumet. After pilgrimage
to Mecca which he accomplished on 2 April 1929, he died on 24 December of the
same year in Paris and was buried on 12 January 1930 in Bou-Saada.
