Delacroix opened a studio in 1841 to create a team of artists who could help him execute the large decorative projects he had been commissioned to paint since 1834. Gustave de Lassalle-Bordes, Louis de Planet and Pierre Andrieu worked with him a great deal. Other artists in Delacroix's entourage held singular roles. These included Edme Saint-Marcel and Hippolyte Poterlet, and even more, Léon Riesener, the painter's cousin, and Paul Huet, his close friend.