Paul Élie Dubois (20 October 1886, in Colombier-Châtelot – 14 February 1949, in Montbéliard) was a French Orientalist painter; identified with the "École d'Alger [fr]".

Dubois, painting at Assekrem

Biography edit

His father, Élie Dubois, was a dentist in Montbéliard and belonged to a religious community known as the Plymouth Brethren.[1]

He studied at the Académie Julian, followed by Jean-Paul Laurens and Fernand Cormon at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, and had his first exhibition at the Salon in 1910. He styled himself as an ethnographic painter and took part in many missions to North Africa; notably to the area around the Hoggar Mountains. He presented the works he created there at the Paris Colonial Exposition of 1931, the Brussels International Exposition (1935), the Exposition Universelle (1937) and the 1939 New York World's Fair.

In 1933, he married Henriette Damart, a pastellist who had worked in Tunisia, and would work with him throughout North Africa.

He was the recipient of numerous awards; including the Abd-el-Tif Prize (1920) and the Grand prix Arts artistique de l'Algérie (1927), His works may be seen at the National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers, the Bardo National Museum (Tunis), the Musée des Années Trente de Boulogne-Billancourt, and several others throughout France.

In 2019, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of his death, the city of Luxeuil-les-Bains paid him tribute.[2] To this end, the Musée de la Tour des Échevins presented a dual exhibition, featuring Dubois and the contemporary Algerian artist, Hocine Ziani, who has also created paintings at Hoggar.[3]

Selected paintings edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Histoire des assemblées de frères en France". Filéo, Le site d'information des Assemblées chrétiennes dites "de Frères" d'Europe francophone (in French). 2003..
  2. ^ "Exposition. Orientalisme, regards croisés entre Paul-Élie Dubois et Hocine Ziani". Luxeuil-Vosges-Sud.fr (in French).
  3. ^ "Orientalisme, regards croisés entre Paul-Élie Dubois et Hocine Ziani", In: L’Est Républicain, 30 April 2019 Online

Further reading edit

  • Chantal Duverget, Paul Élie Dubois, peintre du Hoggar, Mémoire de DEA, Université des Lettres et sciences humaines de Franche-Comté, Besançon, 1992
  • Elizabeth Cazenave, Paul Élie Dubois, peintre du Hoggar, éditions du Layeur, 2006, ISBN 2-915118-62-0
  • Elizabeth Cazenave, Les artistes de l'Algérie. Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs 1830-1962, Bernard Giovanangeli éditeurs; Association Abd El Tif, 2001, ISBN 2-909034-27-5

External links edit