The Booty is a painting created by Greek painter Theodorus Rallis. He was a watercolourist and draughtsman creating portraits, local figures, architectural subjects, interiors, and genre works. Rallis was best known for his orientalist paintings. Theodorus was trained in France by Jean-Léon Gérôme and Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouy. Both of the painters were Orientalists. Jean-Léon was a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts and also an academist. Theodorus acquired knowledge of both academic art and orientalism from his professors. He first exhibited his work at the Salon of 1875 in Paris and was a member of the Société des Artistes Français. Rallis also frequently exhibited works at the Royal Academy in London from 1879 onwards. There is no exact inventory of the painters' existing catalog, but Artnet has tracked over 217 paintings and 15 works on paper attributed to Rallis. In 1900, Rallis was awarded the decoration of the Knight of the Legion of Honor by France.
Common artistic themes of Ottoman Oppression towards Greeks and other inhabitants of the empire recurred throughout the 19th century. In 1824, The Massacre at Chios was completed by French painter Eugène Delacroix, and it features the horrors the Greek people endured during the 1822 Chios massacre. Although Rallis was born in Constantinople, his family was originally from Chios. Another French painter named Constance Blanchard, painted Greek Women of Souli Running to Their Death in 1838, featuring Greek women and children jumping to their deaths to avoid capture, enslavement, rape, and lifelong torture.
