Alfred Edmé Alexis Dehodencq (1822-1882) entered the studio of Léon Cogniet in 1839, and made his Salon début in 1844. After being wounded during the 1848 revolution he left Paris and moved to Spain, where he lived and painted for the next fifteen years. In 1850 he joined the Madrazo family studio, and with their encouragement exhibited his Fight of the Novillos (Pau, Musée des Beaux-Arts) in Madrid, where, between 1850 and 1855 he received several portrait commissions from the international community. His oeuvre is characterised by colourful and painterly scenes of violence and tyranny, although he also painted quite idyllic scenes of Spanish peasantry, such as the Spanish Market Place. After his return to Paris in 1863, his works begin to show the strong influence of Delacroix. In 1870 he was made Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur.

This is one of a pair of paintings by Dehodencq (RCIN 404798 & 406594), of identical dimensions and frames, which joined the collection at the same time, both depicting Seville. This bustling market scene takes place in Seville; its most famous landmark, the Giraldo, can been clearly seen in the centre of the sky line. The square is overlooked by whitewashed residential buildings; a poultry seller reaches backwards to offer a jar to a customer; two elegant ladies with fans stand on the right, and a barefoot seated figure converses with another on the left. The young boy seated in the foreground selling oranges is a quotation from the work of Murillo, a Sevillian artist whose genre scenes were hugely admired during the 19th century. David Wilkie offers a similar tribute a few decades earlier (RCIN 405092).