'Schreyer specialised in painting Eastern European and North African horsemen, which were enormously popular with the German aristocracy as well as millionaire American collectors such as Vanderbilt, Astor, Rockefeller and Morgan.' (L. Thornton, The Orientalists Painter-Travellers, 1828-1908, Paris, 1983, p. 132). He first visited Syria and Egypt in 1856 or 1859, and Algiers in 1861, where he learnt several Arabic dialects.