The term "peintres voyageurs" is a recent term (1993) given by some art historians to the large and diverse group of itinerant French artists - who in many cases spent more time travelling in the French colonies and the Far East than resident in France - from the end of the 19th century to the outbreak of World War II and the ensuing end of the colonial era.
[3] Prior to Thornton's work the term is found, but without any concept of a "movement" of any artistic or social significance - or of the relation of these painters to the cultural policies of France in its colonies.
The two Sociétés, and other galleries, also provided plentiful opportunities for salons and exhibitions to display, and sell, the artists' works sent back to France.
Thornton notes "While most of these Orientalists adopted a more modern manner of painting, some - notably Ludwig Deutsch, Rudolf Ernst and Etienne Dinet - continued in the academic tradition throughout the 1920s.
"[5] It is an open question to what extent the itinerant French painters and photographers of the early 20th Century were truly in sympathy with the local cultures, as argued by Lynne Thornton in particular, or simply fascinated by exotic scenes and colours as earlier Orientalism.