Leopold Carl Muller was the leading Austrian orientalist painter of the nineteenth century and also a highly influential teacher. Born in Dresden, he was taught at the Vienna Academy where he later became a professor. He painted mostly historical subjects, portraits and landscapes. He regularly travelled to Egypt between 1873 and 1886, painting scenes of Egyptian life and selling his work to European travellers who spent winters there. How fully he captured Egyptian life has been questioned as Muller’s paintings make no allusion to the nationalist struggles taking place in Egypt at the time.