This article takes a look back at modern art in Tunisia, from its beginnings in the nineteenth century, following contact with colonial painting, to the first half of the twentieth century, marked by the emergence of modern pictorial forms of expression which definitively broke away from Orientalist imagery and related techniques. Since 1894, with the foundation of the Salon Tunisien, which introduced easel painting in Tunisia, a pictorial milieu has been generated which is distinct from colonial provincialism. The emergence of the School of Tunis, which ushered in the first generation of genuinely Tunisian painters, not so much for their style as for their willingness to freely express their identity, has evolved with a great diversity of artistic modes and expressions up to the present day.
Colonial painting, orientalism, Salon Tunisien, School of Tunis, modern pictorial expressions, Tunisia.