Novis, Théophile (1859-1933)

The Alsatian Théophile Novis (1859-1933) was the draftsman of the expedition led by Arthur Thouar in the Bolivian Chaco in 1887, in search of an outlet on the Paraguay River. He returned to France once the disastrous exploration was over, but returned to Bolivia at the end of the century. If Novis’ graphic work can be considered as an exceptional contribution to the ethnography of the Chaco at the end of the 19^th century, the same cannot be said of his literary work, which betrays the prejudices of European imagination about the “savages” of the Chaco.

Keywords: Ethnographic drawing | Draftsman | Second half of the 19^th century | First half of the 20^th century | Bolivia | Amerindian studies