The Frenchman Alexis de Lagrange was one of the earliest western photographers to travel to India where he used the wet paper negative process invented by Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard. It was de Lagrange who suggested the new process to the renowned photographer of Egypt, Maxime Du Camp, who was experiencing great difficulty with Le Gray's dry waxed paper process which he had been attempting to use in the intense heat. De Lagrange met Du Camp in Egypt, when the former was en route to India. This image was included in Album Photographique de l'Artiste et de l'Amateur, one of the early photographically-illustrated albums published by Blanquart-Evrard.