Eugène Girardet

The present work captures a quiet moment in the backstreets of a North African town, autumnal leaves litter the cobblestones and a shaft of afternoon sun lights up a nearby wall. The men are seated on the edge of a step partaking in a favourite social pastime, drinking tea or coffee and playing a game of draughts. Like fellow artist Etienne Dinet, Girardet shared a desire to capture the everyday scenes he witnessed accurately and as he observed them. The subject of playing draughts or chess was also a popular subject among other Orientalist artists such as Jean Discart, Ludwig Deutsch, Gustavo Simoni, Jean-Leon Gerome, José Tapiró, Charles Wilda and Maria Martinetti.

Born in Paris to a family of artists, Girardet was encouraged by his father the engraver Paul Girardet, to study at L‘École des Beaux-Arts. After spending time in Gérôme’s studio Girardet made his first trip to Spain and Morocco in 1874 and then travelled to Tunisia and Algeria. Throughout his travels he continuously searched for new places, cultures, and people, his quest taking him to Al-Kantara, Biskra, Boghara and Bou-Saada where he met the painter Dinet. Back in Paris in 1877, Girardet and thirteen other artists formed the Société des peintres orientalistes français. Throughout his career Girardet produced a number of varied and interesting works, subjects range from the Wailing Wall and the streets of Cairo to everyday scenes of villages – weavers, herds of goats in the dust, water carriers in the desert, laundresses in the wadi, prayers in the desert and more special occasions such as a wedding celebration in Biskra.