Schreyer, born in Frankfurt, Germany, attracted a large international following with his evocative images of Arab subjects, subdued farm scenes, and the occasional battle painting. After extensive travel in Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, he settled in Paris in 1862 where he became associated with the exotic romanticism advocated by the Orientalist artists. With the outbreak of the Franco- Prussian War in 1870, he returned to Germany, settling in Kronberg where he continued to produce compositions set in Eastern Europe and North Africa for a growing clientele. Although Schreyer’s biographers do not indicate that he went back to France, entries in Lucas’s Diary through the early 1890s record regular visits to the artist’s Paris studio.