Background
Dinet was born the son of a prominent French judge. In 1865 his sister Jeanne, who would be his biographer, was born.
Dinet was born the son of a prominent French judge. In 1865 his sister Jeanne, who would be his biographer, was born.
From 1871, he studied at the Lycée Henry IV, where the future president Alexandre Millerand was also among the students. The following year he studied under William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury at the Académie Julian.
Upon graduation in 1881 he enrolled in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and entered the studio of Victor Galland. He also exhibited for the first time at the Salon des artistes français. Dinet made his first trip to Bou Saâda by the Ouled Naïl Range in southern Algeria in 1884, with a team of entomologists.
The following year he made a second trip on a government scholarship, this time to Laghouat.
At that time he painted his first two Algerian pictures: les Terrasses de Laghouat and l’Oued M’Sila après l’orage. In 1887 he further founded with Léonce Bénédite, director of the Musée du Luxembourg, the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français.
In 1903 he bought a house in Bou Saâda and spent three quarters of each year there. The respect he earned from the natives of Algeria was reflected by the 5,000 who attended his funeral on 12 January 1930 in Bou Saâda.
There he was eulogized by the former Governor General of Algeria Maurice Viollette.