John Lavery enjoyed working outdoors, taking the opportunity to depict the effects of light and shade. In his painting In Morocco, he captured the intensity of North African light and colour. It portrays Lavery’s second wife, Hazel, with her daughter Alice, and Ben Ali Rabbati holding the dog.

Lavery travelled widely and regularly spent the winter in Morocco, where the Australian artist Hilda Rix Nicholas visited him in 1914.