East is east

Camels and souks, Jerusalem and Petra are once again capturing people’s imagination, as a crop of sales earlier in the spring demonstrates

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NASR'EDDINE DINET—born as Alphonse-Etienne Dinet in 1861, the son of a French judge—began making a mark in the Paris art world after training at the Academie Julian and the Beaux Arts. Then, in 1884, he accompanied a party of entomologists to Bou Saâda, a town at the foot of the Ouled Naïl mountains south of Algiers, and the experience changed the course of his life. In 1903, he bought a house there, where he came to spend most of each year. He learned Arabic and converted to Islam, which were great advantages when he wished to find nude models. At the end of his life, he and his wife undertook the Haj to Mecca and, in 1929, his funeral at Bou Saâda attracted 5,000 people from the town.

His paintings were mostly conservative in style, but he was masterly in conveying heat and the sheen of sun on skin. Every now and then, he adopted a looser manner, as in the 27in by 25in The Scribe (Fig 2), sold at Sotheby's last month for $44,450, which was not only a generic subject, but convincing as a portrait.

The 50 lots in that Orientalist sale were painted by 19th-century artists from across Europe, from Spain and Britain to Russia, plus the Ottoman Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910) and one or two Americans. It was noticeable how little variation there was in style and subject matter—camel and other riders, guards, souks, the banks of the Nile, reclining ladies, readers of the Koran. If none of the artists was on a par with John Frederick Lewis (