The Moroccan falconer, known as 'El Hor', or ‘the noble one’, along with horsemen of the high Moroccan plateaus, were Henri Rousseau’s favourite subjects. He sought to express in his paintings of them the majestic beauty and grace of these sports within traditional Arab life. Falconry has been practiced in Morocco since the early Middle Ages and it is rumoured that Arab lords considered falcon droppings on their robes a sign of true nobility.
In this oil, a falconer upon a rearing horse are elegantly sketched with a hand learnt from his master, the great Orientalist master Jean-Léon Gérôme. Rousseau, however moved away from the more rigid defined outlines of his master, developing more fluid rapid brush strokes that capture the immediacy of the moment. He was passionate about creating works based on direct observation allowing a more realist portrayal of the Levant. This firey work calls to mind the works of Antoine-Louis Barye and Eugène Delacroix which he would have seen on a daily basis during his studies in Paris.

Henri Rousseau was an Orientalist in the truest sense of the word. He was born in Cario and his boyhood world was filled with grand Arabian horses, lion hunts and all the exotic colours, smells and tastes of the Middle East. He travelled to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts and in the studio of Gérôme. Dividing his time between France and North Africa, in particular the Rif and Atlas mountains, he befriended the local tribal chiefs, the Caïds, which allowed him access to explore and paint more remote areas painting chieftains, falconers, hunting parties and desert caravans..
In 1927 he exhibited 87 Moroccan works at the prestigious Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. The show was a tremendous critical and commercial success and four years later his distinguished career as a painter was fêted with an exhibit of his work at the 1931 Exposition Universelle in Paris.