Before a Mosque

Decamps was one of the first 19th-century French artists to travel through the countries of the Orient. In 1828 he visited North Africa and Asia Minor, from where he brought back numerous studies which he then used throughout his life in creating landscapes and genre paintings. Before a Mosque is a typical example of his orientalizing works, with its blindingly bright sun, sharp contrasts of light and shade, and generalised treatment of the figures.