Description de l'Égypte
Gérôme painted the scene based on the meeting between Cleopatra and Caesar written in the "Life of Caesar" by Greek historian Plutarch (c. AD 46 – AD 120) more than a century after the incident took place. Even though Gérôme visited Egypt in 1857, where George W. Whiting of Rice University notes "he acquired numerous abundant local color and exact detail" that informed the painting of "Cleopatra and Caesar", the Egyptian background setting in the work is derived from a plate in a volume from the "Description de l'Égypte" (1809–29) that depicts a temple at Deir el-Medina.