This second study devoted to Arthur Rimbaud and the world of photography presents highlights from the conference of Hugues Fontaine, focusing on Rimbaud’s Silhouette on the shores of the Red Sea

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BIENNALE DI SENIGALLIA

Persian miniature from the mid-19th century, merchants sailing on the Red Sea

“ARTHUR RIMBAUD AND PHOTOGRAPHY”
II. Portraits of Rimbaud on the Shores of the Red Sea. Conference by Hugues Fontaine

On the conference day, second speaker was Hugues Fontaine, well known for his meticulous investigations into photographs of the Horn of Africa from the period when Arthur Rimbaud stayed there, particularly in Obock and Tadjoura in the 1880s.

His approach is characterized by caution and a refusal to jump to conclusions.

Fontaine published the work of little-known photographer Édouard Bidault de Glatigné, who documented Obock and Tadjoura during the same period, producing a unique collection of photographs of the landscapes and the people who came into contact with Rimbaud at that time.

Bidault de Glatigné’s vintage prints are extremely rare and we could not obtain any in time.

Nevertheless, the exhibition at the IV Biennale of Senigallia offered several period documents, along with a selection of modern enlargements, that evoke Arthur Rimbaud’s time in the Orient during the 1880s.

Among these was a striking panoramic view of Aden, eloquent in revealing the modern quarters of this most curious city, districts built both before and after the opening of the Suez Canal, all carved into the blazing crater of a volcano.

This ancient city experienced an upsurge after 1175, drawing sailors and merchants from Egypt, Sind, Africa, and even China. Aden, successively independent, Ottoman, or Portuguese, came under the rule of the sultans of Lahej before being ceded in 1838 by Sultan Muhsin bin Fadi to join the British colonial empire—a move that gave it a central position between Suez, Zanzibar, and Bombay.

One must imagine Aden, at that time, as a small village of some 600 inhabitants—Arabs, Somalians, Jews, and Indians—most of them living in reed huts or sleeping on mats amid the ruins, reminders of a vanished era of wealth and prosperity. The population rose dramatically: 6,000 in 1839, 19,289 in 1872, and 34,860 by 1889.

The Erasmus students supported the idea of displaying both the small vintage citrate print and the modern enlargement, printed by Andrea Franceschetti on our handmade Fabriano paper, side by side.

For the past fifty years, researchers, historians, and collectors have scrutinized every passerby in this Red Sea port as they pore over photographs from the 1880s, searching for a glimpse of the young poet who became a coffee trade broker.

Like André Guyaux, Hugues Fontaine prefers not to dwell on misidentifications and errors, although it must be acknowledged that such mistakes have helped to stimulate research into the various travelers who were present on the shores of the Red Sea during Rimbaud’s time.

At present, there are essentially only two known portraits from Rimbaud’s period in the Orient: a group portrait that includes him near Aden, and a series of three self-portraits taken under his direction in Harar.

NEAR ADEN

Today, after much research, only a single group portrait taken in Aden—or more accurately, in the environs of Aden and Lahej—is accepted as authentic.

Several newly uncovered documents now support the identification of Rimbaud in this rather unexpected photograph, where the travelers, it must be said, resemble caricatures from the colonial era.

At that time, Sheikh Othman was a small village with only a few hundred inhabitants, located about ten kilometers north of Aden, between Aden Camp and the town of Lahej. The site was not only an oasis of remarkable freshness in an otherwise arid region, but also, according to Revoil, the location of possible remains of a Phoenician-era glassworks. In this group portrait, six men, each holding a rifle, are posed in two rows in front of the manor house of Hassan Ah, a wealthy notable from Aden.

Although the photographer is uncredited on the vintage albumen print, it is now generally agreed that the image was taken by the explorer-photographer Georges Révoil, who published several works on the region, including Voyage au cap des aromates (1880) and Faune et Flore des pays Somalis (1882).

Georges Révoil (attributed). Group portrait of travelers. Albumen print, 110×150 mm, captioned in ink on mount: “Environs of Aden. Before lunch at Sheikh Othman.” 24 or 25 January 1883

This attribution relies, in particular, on two letters from Georges Révoil, published within a few months of each other in the Revue d’Ethnographie in 1883: “Three days ago, Mr. Tian, Mr. Greffulhe, and I went to Sheikh Othman, partly to hunt and partly to visit this annex of the British colony … archaeological research…” (January 27, 1883)

“I photographed and collected everything of interest—monuments, inscriptions, sculptures. I enlisted the help of the local quarrymen who dig around present-day Mogadishu, extracting stones from ancient buildings to use in new constructions. Unfortunately, I recovered only fragments, yet they covered various periods, and among the most interesting finds were elements identical to those at Sheikh Othman near Aden—enameller’s kilns, fused and drawn glass, beads, evidence of local crafts. There were no bracelets in production, but I found fragments much like those in Sheikh Othman, as well as coins, and in short, all the evidence suggesting that the occupants of Mogadishu were related to those of Sheikh Othman…” (April 20, 1883).

This archaeological approach, undertaken for the French Society, aligns much more closely with our understanding of Arthur Rimbaud, rather than the notion of his merely accompanying well-fed gentlemen on a hunting trip. Révoil’s letters also provide the names of those present: Mr. Tian, Mr. Greffulhe, and Révoil himself, the photographer.

César Tian is readily identifiable with his beard; he is also documented as having several later connections with Rimbaud.

Henri Robert Émile Greffulhe (1845–1896) was a French figure involved in commerce and geography in East Africa—a corresponding member of the Geographical Society of Lyon, who died in Zanzibar in 1896. He served as a commercial agent, managing a coal depot for companies such as Messageries Maritimes and Mala Real, and acted as a liaison for learned societies, though he left no major published works.

The next portrait, presented by Hugues Fontaine, is the famous self-portrait that Rimbaud sent to his beloved family in France in May 1883, along with two others that have faded so much no one can interpret them.

THE BANANA GARDEN

It’s commonly called a self-portrait, but in fact the photo was taken from such a distance that it’s clear someone must have helped Rimbaud capture the shot.

Of course, Rimbaud himself conceived and staged the image, but Hugues explains that the person who pressed the button—the one who actually triggered the shutter—was his close friend and assistant Sotiro, Sotiro Constantin Chriseos (Sotiros Konstantinescu Chryseus, also known as Adji-Abdallah).

Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) with Sotiro. Self-portrait with arms crossed, in a banana garden, Harar, (circa May) 1883. Albumen print, 180×130 mm, BnF

The two other self-portraits that Rimbaud sent in the same envelope from Harar will be discussed in a future post. In any case, they are so flawed that no one has ever been able to use them for any kind of identification.

What truly moves Hugues Fontaine, and sometimes even makes his voice quiver with excitement, is sharing a discovery that a Swiss collector friend brought to his attention. Here’s how it went: while buying an album of photographs from Obock, he was struck by the unusual nature of the last image—completely different from all the others.

It showed a man looking quite pleased with himself, enjoying a beer under a tent or in the shade… and, just barely visible in the background, a faint silhouette, overexposed by the harsh light of the Red Sea sun.

Circle of Édouard Bidault de Glatigné, Surprising Scene at Obock, circa 1886

The British had established Aden as a major port in their colonial empire as early as 1838/1839, a crucial stop on the route to Bombay and Zanzibar. Steamer Point—coal, water, warehouses—became the lifeline for ships passing through the Red Sea.

Across the Gulf, by the early 1880s, a handful of French adventurers dreamed up a counterweight in Obock: a coal depot, a few trading posts, and above all, a base to open the trade routes into Abyssinia. Obock never rivaled Aden in size, but it was a statement, a foothold, a kind of promise.

THE OBOCK SILHOUETTE

We know Rimbaud came to Obock—he passed through, and may have stayed more than once. More than that, he settled for a time just along the coast in Tadjourah. The dates line up; the geography fits. Photographs from the albums Fontaine studied suggest as much. It was a time when everyone was waiting—waiting for the right steamer, the right shipment, waiting for news from the interior.

For Hugues, it has never been about looking for a Rimbaud double. He deeply believes that Rimbaud himself would never have allowed a true portrait of his changed face to be taken—preferring, as always, to keep a distance. In Hugues’s view, only a silhouette, a hint, or a distant presence would be true to Rimbaud’s character.

With characteristic care and thought, Hugues suggests that the faint figure in Obock might well be in harmony with the two other rare traces of Rimbaud—a respectful acknowledgment of mystery, rather than a claim to certainty.

If you would like to contact Hugues to talk with him or ask questions about this Obock silhouette, simply click on one of the images to visit his blog at https://rimbaudphotographe.eu