Short answers, pulled from the story.
Antoine-Alphonse Montfort was a French painter born in Paris on the 3rd of April 1802. He is best known for Orientalist landscapes and genre scenes grounded in direct observation of the Mediterranean and the Near East. He died in Paris on the 28th of September 1884.
Montfort is known for Orientalist landscapes and genre scenes distinguished by precise ethnographic detail. All of his sketches and paintings are characterized by direct observation, with nothing romanticized or idealized in the depiction.
Montfort trained under three painters: Horace Vernet, whose studio he entered in 1816; Antoine-Jean Gros, in whose workshop he trained after 1820; and Théodore Géricault, who gave him advice.
Montfort made two major expeditions. From 1827 to 1828, he sailed as the ship's painter aboard the frigate La Victorieuse, visiting Corsica, Malta, the Greek islands, Istanbul, the coast of Syria, and Egypt. From 1837 to 1838, he joined a second expedition through Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, during which he dressed as a local inhabitant, traveled with caravans, lived in a tent, and studied Arabic.
The Louvre holds 917 of Montfort's original drawings. They were donated to the museum by one of his nephews after his death.
Montfort kept a detailed travel diary during his 1837-1838 expedition to Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. That diary is now held in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.