Best known for his paintings of the sites, scenes and characters of 1900s Cairo, the Armenian-Egyptian artist Ervand Demerdjian captured the daily encounters of his life in the city. After travelling to Paris, Demerdjian attended the Académie Julian and studied under Jean Paul Laurens and the Orientalist painter Benjamin Constant. Upon his return home to Constantinople, Demerdjian encountered increased Turkish aggression towards Armenians and fled to Alexandria, Egypt in 1896. Later living near Fatimid, or Islamic Cairo, Demerdjian painted and drew scenes of his adopted home that included portraits and gestural studies. Although his style subscribed to Orientalist approaches, Demerdjian began to infuse more expressive emphases into his later work. From 1901, he lectured at the Khorenian Armenian School in Cairo and participated in some annual exhibitions of the Circle of Artists, the first group of its kind founded in modern Egypt.