Paul Jouve prepared for his eleven-month journey in the Far East as an official artist for France, having won sponsorship from the Indo-Chinese governing body in 1921. He sailed from Marseille late summer, 1922. Heading for Port Saïd, he passed through the Suez Canal and, after several stops, reached Cochinchine, making his way first to Saigon, then by boat up the Mekong river to Phnom Penh. Jouve reached Angkor in October, where he marveled at the huge temples rising up from the jungle.

He spent three months there, making this the longest single stop of his journey. He made paintings of the elephants that bathed in front of the temple of Bayon at Angkor Thom, with its monumental towers, carved with four ...