20th Century Orientalist Painting - Chess Players

Charming orientalist scene with 3 characters playing chess in a North African interior, probably in Algeria. The painter Michel François Auguste Moliner-Violle was a geographer and archaeologist, he was in charge of mapping Algeria at the end of the 19th century and his work is still a reference. It was also he who discovered the Roman city of Thimgad and who carried out the first excavations of the site. He was an amateur painter in his spare time. Oil on canvas in a 19th century frame. Signed and dated lower left 'Moliner-Violle 1903' Painting and frame in perfect condition