This picture is a good example of French ‘Salon’ painting. It was painted by an Austrian artist, working in Paris in the second half of the nineteenth century, who eventually became a naturalised Frenchman. The Paris Salon was the annual exhibition that more or less dictated artistic taste in 19th century France. It promoted a from of ‘establishment’ art, rooted in narrative, which was both carefully painted and well researched. This came to be the standard against which all art movements thought of as radical at the time, reacted, notably Impressionism. However, the art fostered by the Salon was very popular, both with the general public who viewed it and the wealthy professional and merchant classes that bought it. A vigorous strand of this academic taste was ‘Orientalism’, an area of subject matter (particularly the harem) that most important nineteenth century French painters tackled.