Walter Gould painted this image in Florence in 1853, soon after he returned from Greece and Turkey. He posed the figure wearing Greek military costume and holding a long-stemmed pipe; there is also a water pipe, or hookah, on the floor beside the window. Gould was fascinated by the smoking habits of the people he met on his travels and, after witnessing the Ramadan fast in Turkey, was shocked that after having no food or drink all day, ​“the first thing a Turk makes a dive at … is his pipe.” (Letter from the artist, Kutahia, Asia Minor, four days from Constantinople, July 9, 1851, SAAM curatorial file)