Girodet made this linear study early on in the process of planning his Revolt of Cairo (see photo), which today hangs in the National Museum of the Château of Versailles. The composition shows French soldiers crushing a rebellion in Cairo prompted by Napoleon's invasion and occupation of the city in 1798. The very thin support of the drawing and its even contour lines indicate that the artist might have produced it by tracing an earlier version of the composition. The museum owns a rough oil sketch for The Revolt of Cairo that is about half the size of the present drawing.