A native of Flanders, studied at Verschaffelt Antwerp. He began his career by painting large historical scenes in the manner of the old masters. Verschaffelt has forty years at the beginning of the First World War and the German occupation of Belgium led him to leave his country to protect his family. Thus he discovered Algeria.

After the death of his wife, he never left Algeria. He remarried an Arab woman, and adopted the customs of her adopted country. He often took for models his new wife and his wife's family. the girl in tambourine seems to pose for the painter. She is young and seems intimidated in her shimmering dress. She is adorned as a bride with a sumptuous wrap harmon...