Sappho und Phaon

In 1809 David was Napoleon's official painter, and France and Russia were, for the moment, allies after the peace their two emperors had signed at Tilsit two years before. In that short warm spell a wealthy Russian collector living in Paris, Prince Nikolai Yusupov, commissioned this for his palace back home. The subject is old and Greek: the poet Sappho seated with her lyre, a scroll of her own love verses across her knee, her lover Phaon standing behind her as Cupid lifts the instrument toward her. Within three years the alliance had collapsed and Napoleon's army was marching on Moscow. The painting had already reached Russia, where it is still the only work by David the Hermitage owns.