After his first trip to Constantinople in 1854 Gérôme was to have a lifelong fascination with the Orient. He made numerous sketches of the countries he visited such as Turkey, Egypt and Palestine. These drawings were later re-worked in his Paris studio into highly finished paintings, noted for their impeccable draftmanship and sensuous color. His Paris atelier was filled with props from his journeys which he used in combination with his preparatory sketches to re-create the events he had witnessed. Indeed in his very early career Gérôme was known as an "ethnographic painter." Prayer at the Sultan's Tomb was painted in 1878, the same year as his masterpiece La Mosquée bleue (Christie's, New York, February 14, 1996, lot 30)