Hédi Khayachi (1882 in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

– 1948 in Marsa) was a

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

n painter. He was the first professional

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

painter in Tunisia and the official

portraitist A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

of the Husseinite court.

Early life

His father came from an

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word's ...

line Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

linked to the prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

,Abdessattar Amamou, conférence à l'occasion du centenaire de la famille Khayachi dans la peinture tunisienne, avril 2008, Tunis which settled in

Tripolitania Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

before establishing themselves in Tunis during the time of

Al-Husayn I ibn Ali at-Turki Al-Husayn I ibn Ali, also known as Hussein I ( ar, حسين الأول; born in 1675 – 13 September 1740). He was the founder of the Husainid Dynasty, which ruled Tunisia until the abolition of the monarchy in 1957. Biography Husayn was born ...

. The Khayachi branch of the family settled in

Monastir, Tunisia Monastir, also called Mestir ( ar, المنستير ', from the Greek "hermit's cell, monastery"), is a city on the central coast of Tunisia, in the Sahel area, some south of Sousse and south of Tunis. Traditionally a fishing port, Monastir is ...

between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries as suppliers to

civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

.Mokhtar Bey, conférence à l'occasion de la publication de l'ouvrage ''Et la lumière et l'ombre'' de Mustapha Chelbi, 2000 His mother was of

Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...

origin; her father had founded his own

artisan An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...

business in Tunis. Having a fondness for painting, Khayachi frequented the free academies in

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...

and received an artistic education in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where he was instructed in portraiture and visited the

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Work

In 1908, he produced official portraits of the Husseinite

Beys Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...

and then worked for several leading families and high dignitaries, which allowed him to be described as the major portraitist in Tunisian painting. Most of his works, therefore, are portraits, but Khayachi also painted

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

s and scenes of traditional life and

customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

in the houses of the

middle-class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Comm ...

es, as well as more modest homes. In his canvases, he paid tribute to women in different styles and mastered the interaction of light and shadow. Khayachi appeared amongst the group of forerunners in Tunisian painting:

Pierre Boucherle Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French language, French form of the name Peter (given name), Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via ...

Yahia Turki Yahia Turki, (), born Yahia Ben Mahmoud El Hajjem in 1903 in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, died 1 March 1969, was a Tunisian painter described as the "father of Tunisian painting". After the Independence in 1956, Yahia became the president of l'Ecole ...

, Moses Lévy, Jules Lellouche, Ali Bellagha, Ammar Farhat, Maurice Bismouth,

Hatem El Mekki Hatem El Mekki (May 16, 1918 – September 23, 2003) was a prominent Tunisian painter. He was born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, and died in Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of T ...

and Edgard Naccache. He produced about twenty exhibitions in Tunisia and in Europe and represented Tunisia in numerous international artistic events. He died at the age of 66, leaving unfinished paintings which were completed and signed by his son, Noureddine Khayachi, who was also a painter. Hédi Khayachi was honoured in 1983, 1997 and 2000 by the issue of

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

s by

La Poste Tunisienne La Poste tunisienne (Arabic : البريد التونسي, French: ''La Poste tunisienne'') is the company responsible for postal service in Tunisia. It also operates banking services within Tunisia as well. The company was founded in 1847, and ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khayachi, Hedi 1882 births 1948 deaths Portrait painters People from Tunis 20th-century Tunisian painters