«À la lisière du Sahara»: the Tunisia of Charles-Joseph Tissot between Landscapes, Cities and Architecture

Abstract

Charles-Joseph Tissot (1828-1884), traveled several times throughout the Tunisian territory, studying its conformation, the orographic system, the Roman road network, and discovering important artifacts, especially epigraphic ones, in the dual role of consul and archaeologist. This article aims at reconstructing the context and terms of his first expedition, conducted in 1853 from the capital Tunis to the edge of the Sahara Desert. The comparative analysis of letters and unpublished drawings of ancient ruins, architecture, cities and landscapes, on the one hand allows us to accurately recompose the itinerary followed by the traveler, on the other hand highlights the ability to provide an objective reading of the territory crossed. Based on Tissot’s full interpenetration in the culture of the Arab world, an iconographic picture of surprising quality and accuracy emerges, which for the first time qualifies Tissot, as well as a famous archaeologist, also as an extraordinary landscape and architectural painter, capable of offering to the European culture of his time an unprecedented vision of littleknown or completely unexplored places.