social circle of Mornay's mistress, the actress Mademoiselle Mars, and recommended Delacroix for this assignment. Delacroix joined the party and together they set sail in 1831 and arrived in Tangiers, Morocco, on 25 January 1832. Delacroix greatly relished the atmosphere, the colours, the objects, the people, and the architecture of this exotic world. Delacroix recorded everything in his journals. During his six-month trip Delacroix filled seven large sketchbooks and created an album of eighteen watercolours. Delacroix was invited into Jewish households to sketch. His 1832 journal recounts in detail the clothing, interior décor, and festivities of the Jewish households and he drew several small sketches of the Jewish families and households. From these he later painted the works Jewish Wedding in Morocco (c.1841) and Jewish Bride (c.1832). Delacroix found it significantly harder to sketch Arabic women, due to religious constrictions. Despite this setback Delacroix still attempted to sketch the Arabic women. As soon as he would seek to sketch them from afar, the Arabic women who would hang their washing out on roof terraces would immediately alert their husbands. Delacroix returned home via Spain, and Algeria, where he stayed for three days. By luck he was at the Algerian port where he met a merchant who gave him access to his households private harem. Delacroix created two small sketches of the women in the Algerian harem that he later used to create his oil painting Women of Algiers. Orientalism The nineteenth century concept of North Africa was a warped and fantasised interpretation of the foreign countries. Ottoman Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and India were all condensed under the enigmatic category of "The Orient". It was perceived as a timeless, exotic land of fantasy and adventure. This ignorant understanding had been developing since the seventeenth century with the introduction of Chinese and Japanese culture and aesthetics into Europe by the Jesuits. Many fictional works were paraded as fact, such as Montesquieu's 1721 book Persian Letters. A fictional set of correspondence that satirically recounted the European character's response to North Africa. These books, as well as other paintings, drawings, literature, photographs, and travel diaries, created preconceptions that coloured the travelling artists interpretation of their surroundings in North Africa. French Orientalist painting took off with Napoleon's Egyptian campaign of 1798, the year in which Delacroix was born. French fascination again increased during the Greek revolution in 1821–30, during which time Victor Hugo authored