Etienne Dinet

Raymond Laquière (a gift from the artist; Laquière was a member of the Chamber of Deputies and mayor of Saint Eugène, a town near Algiers and the son of the illustrious General Emmanuel Laquière, a friend of the artist to whom the painting is dedicated); thence by descent

Denise Brahimi & Koudir Benchikou, La Vie et l'œuvre d'Etienne Dinet, Paris, 1984, p. 200, no. 170, catalogued & illustrated (as Chasseur à l'affût dans les dunes)

The canvas has been relined. Under ultraviolet light the only clearly visible signs of retouching appear to be some intermittent minor strokes along the framing edges and a couple of small minor spots in the distant central hill. Some of the pigments, including those of the green grass and parts of the figure appear to fluoresce under U.V. light, however these certainly appear to be the artist's original pigments and do not appear to correspond to retouching. This painting is in good condition and ready to hang. Presented in a decorative gilt frame.
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The Night Hunter brilliantly captures the Bedouin soul. It stands out in Dinet's oeuvre, on two counts. Firstly for its masculine subject matter: men bearing weapons are much less common in Dinet's oeuvre than his depictions of children and teenagers at play or at study, young girls amusing themselves, Ouled Naïl dancers and their lovers, and, in his later works, Islamic religious practice and the prayers of the faithful.

The painting is also exceptional for having remained in the ownership of the family of its first owner, Raymond Laquière, the son of Général Emmanuel Laquière (1855-1920), a close friend of the artist. Emmanuel Laquière trained at the military academy of Saint Cyr in 1877. In 1881, he became a deputy lieutenant in one of the French Zouave regiments, served in the Sahara, and was appointed Commander of the Algiers Division of the Service des Affaires Indigènes. In this capacity he mapped the Touat and Tidikelt regions, and the Saharan Oases. He was also tasked with organising  the military expedition into Aïn Chair, becoming commander of the Colomb Bechar territory. Fluent in Arabic, and deeply attuned to local culture, he was trusted by the tribal chieftains as well as being held in high respect by his subordinates.        

The subject of the present work, of a proud local tribesman, is one to which General Laquière would have been able to relate closely. Whom or what he is stalking is left for the viewer to speculate. The work itself may suggest two different interpretations. The rifleman's stealth under the cover of darkness and his intense concentration leads one to suppose that he might be preparing an ambush against an enemy tribe, or indeed a colonial oppressor. But he might also be a hunter preparing to attack an animal of prey. Setting the scene at night accentuates the mystery, and also provides a wonderful example of Dinet's chiaroscuro style, as he applies the techniques of classical painting to the study of desert life.