It was rejected for entry to the 1872 Paris Salon, disliked by the artist and eventually sold for a small sum as part of a larger lot.

In the 1870s, Renoir temporarily rejected the realism of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet in favour of the colour and drama of his hero Delacroix.

[2] The title of the picture acknowledged the artificial nature of much Orientalist painting by making it clear that these were Parisian women in costume.

[6] Although Algerian costume and culture was well known in France in the mid-nineteenth century as a result of French colonial involvement in the country, Renoir did not visit Algeria until 1881.

The two black-haired women at the front appear to be in subservient roles attending the blonde headed woman in the centre who is evidently being prepared for a sexual encounter.

He moved studios and left it behind, hoping his former landlady would get rid of it, but he eventually had to take it back and it was sold in a lot of eleven works that fetched only 500 francs.