Decamps first studied with Étienne Bouhot and then with Alexandre-Denis Abel de Pujol before embarking on his own at the age of 15. He reacted against academic doctrine, and treasured the time spent as a youth working in the countryside near Orsay. His work shows a dramatic flair, and reveals the influence of Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, and Poussin. Together with Delacroix and Géricault he ranks as a founder of French Romanticism. He also pioneered the interest in Oriental themes, after embarking on a journey as a political envoy to the Middle East in 1828 and returning with many sketches, from which he drew for the rest of his career. Here he shows a typical round Turkish house, with resting figures and playing children, and a view of the countryside. The composition reappears in a lithograph of 1831, extended on all sides.