Meyers states that Roberts was "orientalizing the picturesque ideal in a Levantine setting",[11] and Proctor writes that the images were not an accurate representation but rather a figment of the Western imagination.[12] Bendiner proposed multiple influences underlying Roberts's orientalist style, including his ethnic biases, social conscience, opulent taste, self-confidence, sense of history, contemporary international rivalries, and the religious questions of the day.[13]