GEORGES BRETEGNIER | THE HOUR OF PRAYER, TANGIER

Wearing an emerald green gown, an Imam leads a group of men in prayer in the mosque of El-Kasbah in Tangier. They face the mihrab, indicating the direction of Mecca. The scene is bathed in a warm light, enhanced by the soft yellows of the Moorish architecture. The standing men perform the initial invocation to God, or qiyam, while the figure to the far left performs the sajda or prostration, during which the forehead is reverently placed to the ground. 

A pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme, Bretegnier first visited North Africa at the end of 1884 where he remained until the following summer, studying the culture and the architecture, while visiting Morocco, Tunisia and Spain. Hugely influenced by what he found, he took to dressing in the local garb in order to mix more easily with the locals, sporting a djellaba and travelling by donkey.