As a boy, Chassériau entered the studio of Ingres, following his master to Rome in 1834. Chassériau's immediate success at the Paris Salon of 1836 was confirmed three years later by a Venus and his “Suzanne,” both in the Louvre. About 1840, however, he began to grow dissatisfied with the art of Ingres.

Around 1843, Chassériau's style and subject matter began to show the influence of Ingres's rival, Delacroix, and he began deliberately attempting to combine the rhythmical linear qualities of Ingres with the colouristic methods of the Romantic master. His 15 Othello etchings (1844) and his paintings of Moorish and Jewish life following his trip to North Africa (1846) suggest Delacroix, though Chassériau added an exotic quality of his own. He was also important in the revival of monumental allegorical and religious painting in France, though few of those works survive intact.