Melville evolved his own technique of watercolour painting, working on wet paper prepared with white body-colour. The splashes and apparently casual blots of colour in this scene are carefully applied to give the impression of spontaneity and vibrant colour appropriate to an oriental scene. Always interested in capturing moment and light, his figures often appear as blurred forms. Melville travelled in the Middle East between 1881-2 and made repeated visits to Spain and Morocco in the 1890s. This watercolour was probably painted on one of Melville’s two visits to North Africa in 1890 and 1893. Always interested in capturing movement and light, his figures often appear as blurred forms in his pictures.