At first glance I realized the marketplace depicted resembled closely to Egypt and specifically Cairo (due to the architecture). My second thought was that given the year the painting was made (1875 as was stated), if true, would belong to the Orientalism movement, dawn of impressionism.

Now there were only a handful of European artists that travelled that specific era to the East. The style and colour palette reminded me strongly of the painting "View of Cairo" by Jean-Léon Gérôme.

So my best guess is that the painting in the competition could belong to the French, Jean-Léon Gérôme. But no matter how far I searched I couldn't find this specific painting, and also was puzzled for many hours as I found out that the year he visited Egypt was 1856. Given this I started having my first doubts, but the painting style was so prominent in my head, I thought this might be the answer.....Then again I could be completely wrong!

Great competition by the way, gave me a good reason to challenge my memory and dust-off a few art history books, so I had a really nice time doing it, which is priceless!

Keep up the great work. Best wishes for the future.

Sincerely yours,

Michael Toumazou
3D Artist / Animator
www.myrmigidesignhouse.gr