A Turkish man about to bid farewell to his lover, while gazing out of a window to the sea. Engraving by H. T. Ryall after H. Andrews.

The man (Selim) resolves to leave the woman (Zuleika). The subject is as described in the poem 'The farewell' by Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.), which expresses the thoughts of Selim on leaving Zuleika in Lord Byron's poem 'The bride of Abydos' Canto I, stanza xxiii: in Landon's words, "I dare not look upon that face, / My bark is in the bay, / Too much already its soft grace / Has won from me delay. / A few short hours, and I must gaze / On those sad eyes no more, / A dream will seem the pleasant days / Past on this lonely shore. / […] / Thy pensive influence only brought / The dreams of early years, / What childhood felt—what childhood thought— / Its tenderness—its tears! / Farewell! the wind sets from the shore, / The white foam lights the sea. / If Heaven one blessing have in store, / That blessing light on thee!" (Landon, loc. cit.)