Achille Zo

After losing his father at the age of 14, Zo first became an apprentice house painter while taking drawing lessons at the Bayonne Académie de dessin, receiving many prizes for his work.

His Gitanos du Monte Sagrado à Grenade and Famille de bohémiens en voyage fared quite well at the Salon in 1861.

In 1868, the Tribunal des Rois Mores à l'Alhambra de Grenade, purchased by the French State, earned him a gold medal at the Salon.

In the late 1860s, Zo turned from Spanish scenes to orientalism, exhibiting Rêve du croyant (The Believer's Dream) at the 1870 Salon.

It showed one of Muhammad's disciples discovering the splendors of paradise while smoking a hookah, revealing a fanciful approach to Islam and the widely held western view of oriental piety.