This work is an excellent example of the artist’s interest in Orientalist themes, which had been first inspired by his brother-in-law Mariano Fortuny (1838-1874) and continued far past his sojourn in Morocco. Although the colour and execution lack the audacity found in Fortuny’s work, with a neutral palette where only touches of red, yellow and blue stand out in the depiction of garments, the piece does succeed in capturing the North African types and atmosphere. Particularly notable is the contrast between the dull atmosphere of the foreground and the light that shines from the back of the composition, where the last rays of the evening still linger.

Dating from 1905, the artist made it a long time after his stay in Morocco (1877), using the sketches he had done on that trip. Although this canvas appears in inventories under the title of El predicador (The Preacher), the stillness of the scene, the musical instrument carried by the main figure, and the attention with which those around him are listening to him, devoid of any religious fervour—as can be seen in the carefree posture of the child depicted in the foreground—suggest that he might in fact be a storyteller, a subject used by other Orientalist painters in similar compositions.

The scene unfolds inside a cemetery in the outskirts of a coastal town, where a man holding an

 oud 

this stringed instrument is a kind of Arabic lute similar to the rebec, with a pear-shaped wooden soundboard, short neck and no frets.

in one hand addresses some thirty Arabs of all ages who are seated around him in a semicircle.

Two of the listeners hold long muskets decorated with silver and gold bands, and another one a sibha made of thirty three beads to recite the ninety-nine names of Allah. In the background of the composition, two standing women dressed in kaftans are at one remove from the group. The vegetation consists of agaves, wild flowers, and bushes. Towards the back, a caravan of camels passes by on its way to the gates of a city by the sea, where we can see three minarets rising above the skyline.