Müller was the son of a German-born museum director in Bristol. He was one of the most gifted painters in the Constable-Bonington tradition, and found most of his early subjects in and around Bristol. It was not until late in his short life, in 1838, that he travelled to Greece and Egypt, reaching Asia Minor in 1841. This Eastern influence led to a late flowering of glorious colour and tapped a deep vein of Romanticism in his work. Our picture is from this period.