Henri Guillaume Schlesinger (1814-93) was born in Frankfurt, studied at the academy in Vienna, and continued in Paris. From 1840 to 1889 he exhibited at the Paris Salon, and then at the Salon des Artistes Français, of which he was a member. He was awarded a third class medal in 1840 and a second class medal in 1847. He was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur. Many of his works feature beautiful and exotically-garbed women.

The frame is inscribed 'VOLKSFEST IN DEN PYRENEEN / (la danse de l'Ours) / von H. Schlesinger von Wien' ('Country Fair in the Pyrenees, the Bear Dance, by Schlesinger of Vienna'). In a Pyrenees village revellers dance in a ring around a wooden platform upon which two musicians are performing; one plays a violin and the other a pipe and a stringed instrument simultaneously; a man stands between them, urging them on, with a glass of beer in hand; with village buildings to the rear left, and high mountains behind.