Jules Laurens undertook an incredible three-year journey
throughout the Middle East and Asia Minor to Persia in the late
1840s, as part of a scientific and geographical expedition.
Despite incredible hardship, Laurens drew every day. These
drawings and the journey provided the basis for a significant
career as an Orientalist painter and illustrator, and as a
commentator on Middle Eastern affairs. This work was painted
almost twenty-five years after the journey. Based on his
meticulous drawings, the painting depicts a mosque near Tabriz
in present-day Iran. The imposing building stands in an austere,
snow-covered landscape. The painting depicts the desolate
conditions of a journey marked by weather extremes and ever-
present danger. The snow, while beautiful in the painting, made
the journey extremely treacherous and the expedition’s leader
was temporarily snow-blind.