Albert Aublet

His career opened conventionally enough with scenes from the Normandy coast around Tréport, but a first visit to Turkey in 1881^[1] redirected everything. He returned with orientalist subjects that sold: "Turkish Woman in the Baths" was an early success, and the strand continued through two Algerian trips alongside Gérôme and the Italian painter Alberto Pasini. The Paris Salon rewarded him with a third-class medal in 1880 and a gold medal at the 1889 World Fair; the Legion of Honour followed in 1890.

After two further visits to Tunisia in 1901^[1] and 1904, Aublet bought Dar Ben Abdullah, a palace in the old quarter of Tunis, and made it his permanent base. He became president of the Society of Tunisian Artists, a fitting position for a painter who had spent nearly three decades treating North Africa as his primary subject, producing beach scenes, hammam interiors, and portraits of daily life along the Mediterranean littoral. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1938^[1], aged 86, outliving most of his Academic contemporaries.