Louis Potter traveled to French occupied Tunisia, arriving sometime before 1900. He promptly immersed himself in the Islamic culture, residing in the Arab quarter and befriending the locals. He must have struggled to locate models for his works, as Islamic tradition stipulates that representational images can jeopardize the soul. Figural representations, particularly those of Allah, Muhammad, and other prophets, are banned. Instead of relying on typology to construct images of his reluctant neighbors, Potter managed to convince some volunteers to model for him.
His Post Impressionist portraits of his subjects, both sketched and sculpted, reveal his genuine interest in and respect for their spiritual concerns. In this sense, his work speaks to the interests of European scholars Ignác Goldziher and Sir Richard Francis Burton, both of whom had begun studying Islamic culture in earnest.
Potter’s talent did not go unnoticed by the Tunisian people, whom he represented through his sculptural submissions to the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris. The Bey of Tunis recognized his unique service to the country by awarding him the decoration of an Officer of Nichal Iftikhar (also known as the “order of Victory of Tunisia”) that same year.