Preziosi probably used models to recreate this harem scene which as an infidel Frank he would not normally be allowed to witness. However, there is nothing in this decorous interior which is impossible or unlikely and it may be based on a visit to the house of one of his Turkish friends. The furniture and fittings show western European influence, particularly in the curious rococo wall bracket and the fringed sofa in place of the traditional raised wooden platform covered with carpets. By the middle of the 19th century French style in interior design was fashionable in Turkey, especially a degenerate form of the rococo. The woman smoking a chubuk or pipe has probably filled it with a mild and aromatic tobacco mixture favoured by harem inhabitants. In her right hand she holds a coffee-cup while the black slave, possibly a Nubian, stands awaiting a command. In the background the Turkish master of the house is entering the room. A version of this composition, dated 1852 and allegedly painted for the Empress Eugenie, is much less restrained, its details deliberately pandering to the popular western idea of a harem, based on Arabian Nights imagery.