A late afternoon meal at an encampment, Cairo

A landscape painter whose first submission to the Paris Salon was accepted in 1834, Théodore Frère was embraced by the French art establishment from an early age. As news, images and artefacts from France's newly conquered territories in North Africa flooded back into France, Frère - like so many of his contemporaries - made extensive trips to Algeria in the late 1830s, recording both scenes from daily life and historical events such as the siege of Constantine by the French.

Frère exhibited his first Orientalist painting at the Salon of 1839. After further travels to Syria and Constantinople, in 1851 he visited Egypt where he established a studio. Very appreciated in Europe by the the King of Würtemberg, Louis Philippe and the Impératrice Eugenie, he was also held in high regard in the East. The Ottoman rulers of Egypt presented him with the honorary title of “Bey”.