Paul Desiré Trouillebert was a painter from the French Barbizon School, popular in the mid-nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and exhibited at the Salon from 1865 to 1884.

He was very interested in Orientalism and painted a large number of portraits, in addition to voluptuous nudes of exotic women. His most famous of those paintings is called "Harem Servant Girl" executed in 1874.

Orientalism was at the peak of its popularity at this time and his output included many pictures of Oriental women. After 1880 he concentrated mainly on French landscapes, although he also painted some landscapes of Holland and Venice.

His painting style was close to that of late Corot but contrary to false claims, he never actually copied him. This assumption arose due to the fact that in 1884 Alexandre Dumas bought a painting he thought to be by Corot but actually turned out to be a Trouillebert. A trial ensued arousing strong public passions and Trouillebert was to become known, quite falsely, as a "poor man's Corot", resulting in his neglect by art historians.