Chassériau actually witnessed this scene and sketched it in his notebook during a trip to Algeria in 1846. From the ancient town of Constantine, he wrote, "I have seen some highly curious things: primitive and overwhelming, touching and singular. At Constantine, which is high up in some enormous mountains, one sees the Arab people and the Jewish people [living] as they were at the very beginning of time." The voyage in Algeria furnished Chassériau with motifs for the remainder of his short career.

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