1 - Alexandre ROUBTZOFF (Saint Petersburg 1884 – Tunis 1949)

Alexandre ROUBTZOFF (Saint Petersburg 1884 – Tunis 1949) Women Preparing Couscous, 1915 Oil on canvas painted with tempera 80 x 98 cm Signed, located, and dated in French in the upper left: Tunis 1915 Dated and located in Arabic in the lower left: تونس ١٣٣٤ (Tunis 1334 H.) Inscribed in Arabic: “Fātima” at the top center, “Mahbūba” at the top right Annotated with the dates of the modeling sessions: 23–28 [Muharram 1334], corresponding to approximately December 1–6, 1915 Provenance Private collection, Tunisia; acquired by the current owner’s grandfather; passed down through the family to the present day. Archives This previously unpublished painting is documented in the archives of the Association des Amis d’Alexandre Roubtzoff, which holds a black-and-white photographic print taken by the Parisian photographer Vizzavona. Roubtzoff arrived in Tunis in April 1914 as a scholarship student from the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg and initially settled in La Goulette before moving to Rue El Djazira. When his scholarship ended, he chose to remain in Tunisia rather than return to Russia, which was in turmoil due to the war and then the revolution; he lived there until his death in 1949 and obtained French citizenship in 1924. These early years in Tunisia were marked by an almost ethnographic attention to the costumes, jewelry, and tattoos of the women he encountered, driven by a desire for accuracy. *Women Preparing Couscous* offers a remarkable example of this. The painter does not merely name his models in Arabic; he distinguishes them by their adornments. Fātima, in the center, wears cross-shaped facial tattoos, large silver earrings, and a fibula—traits characteristic of Bedouin women. Mahbūba, on the right, wears a yellow headband, a pearl necklace, and a shoulder piece embroidered with red and gold herringbone patterns. The third woman, whose name does not appear, wears a red headband-style scarf and has a tattoo on her forearm. Unusually, Roubtzoff also recorded the dates of the sittings on the canvas: six sessions, from the 23rd to the 28th of Muharram 1334, corresponding roughly to December 1–6, 1915. This detail attests to a methodical approach to painting from life, attentive to the time spent with his subjects. Here, Roubtzoff sincerely captures the dignity and individuality of his models through his meticulous observation of their domestic gestures.