Rodolphe Bresdin was a reclusive, highly individual artist who focused his career as a printmaker and draftsman on intricate compositions of exotic, mysterious, and even macabre subjects. Following the 1848 Revolution, Bresdin left Paris to travel around France on foot, settling in Toulouse from 1853 to 1857. It was there that he created this print, possibly inspired by Théophile Gautier's 1838 poem of the same title.