Étienne DINET (1861 1929) & Sliman Ben IBRAHIM BAMER
The Original Desert
Manuscript in-4 paperback (30 cm x 19.5 cm) 138 pages and 7 pages in-8 free.
Lead pencil, ink, red mineral pencil, erasures. Presented under a morocco earthenware shirt from Siena, with traditional Algerian decoration pushed cold, contemporary with the manuscript.
Dated Bousada, the twelfth day of the month of Radjeb in 1326 after the Hegira, corresponding to August 9, 1908. (The book will be published in 1911 in Piazza)
Text in French by Etienne Dinet based on the Arabic text by Sliman Ben Ibrahim Bâmer. Handwritten introduction in Arabic by Sliman Ben Ibrahim Bâmer.
Facing the text, Etienne Dinet painted 72 very beautiful full-page colour watercolours to illustrate the book. The painter gives many technical indications concerning the colours, the places when he is inspired by a monument, a landscape or an architecture, as well as layout details.
Signed, dated and located by the artist and author on page 128.
Each drawing is labelled with the following captions:
"The approaches to the Sahara. Cedars. Mountains. High plateau."
"Snake charmer, viper in hand and on his head
" "Out-of-text: Child and fennec from the painting, pasted on grey paper with ornaments
" "The entrance to the desert
" "The Dunes. Double page out
of text" "The Tuareg attack. On their meharas are in yellow dust. Fight with their spears."
"The fire. Flight of men and camels. Very black smoke in full sunlight
" "Camels at the wells" "Nomad from the south. Holding his rifle on his shoulders across."
"Bou Saada's Wadi and the washers
" "Girl
's toilet" "Fight between the dancers, at night. In the street, lit by a coffee shop door."
"Market seen from a terrace."
"Witchcraft, moon and clouds."
"Pink desert of Guerrara."
Boussada "City of happiness or Gateway to the desert" "The Sahara is empty, but rich in the purity of its air. The Arab is poor by himself - but rich by his love for the soul of his desert - and he remembers with tenderness the harsh tyranny of his country; he cannot separate himself from it "the hunger of his stomach! Rather than the distance of the eyes" Like the fish in the sea; if it separates from it, it dies immediately.
And we who compose this book, we agree with his words.
The Bedouin life! In it lies the most complete and obvious poetic enchantment. Those who lead her have a charming companion in the fantasy of their imagination, and with the sparks of their thoughts, the worshippers of Allah have enlightened themselves. It is because their eyes stretch over the most beautiful treasures in the middle of which the eyes can frolic.
Behold their land, naked as a naked teenager without veils; the dawn pierces between the stars of her breasts, and the sun is projected, all red from the passionate embrace of the hands of the night. He deploys his dress on the palms of the oasis, renowned for its beauty, like an emerald ring passed on the finger of the river. (...)
These shows exalt the Bedouin in their pursuit, but neither hands nor feet can reach them."
Exceptional manuscript, illustrated by one of the greatest and most renowned Orientalist artists.