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 ouevre is characterised by colourful and painterly scenes of violence and tyranny, although he also painted quite idyllic scenes of Spanish peasantry, such as the Gypsy Dancers. After his return to Paris in 1863, his works began 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. A larger version of this painting, dated 1851, is in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. Before a building around which runs a tile-roofed colonnade of Moorish design, countrymen sit clapping and playing musical instruments, while in the centre a gypsy dancer in a blue tiered skirt and red shawl performs a dance with her left arm raised.