Eugene Alexis Girardet (1853 - 1907)

Girardet hailed from an artistic Swiss Huguenot family, and even before his teacher Jean-Léon Gérôme encouraged him to visit the Orient, he had long had the travel bug from his uncles Karl and Edouard, who had traveled to and painted Egypt. Also, his father Paul had engraved episodes of the colonial war in Algeria after Horace Vernet.

In 1874, Girardet left for Morocco, then traveled to Tunisia and Algeria, for which he developed a particular fondness. He spent subsequent visits in Algiers and Boghari, but above all in El Kantara and Bou-Saâda, where he met Etienne Dinet who later made the oasis his home.

Girardet painted simple everyday scenes: herds of goats in the dust, prayers ...