Cleopatra Disembarking at Tarsus

In 1682 Louis XIV bought this harbour from the dealer Louis Alvarez. It was the year the court settled for good at Versailles, and the year Claude died in Rome, some 40 years after he painted it. The first owner, Cardinal Angelo Giori, had ordered it in 1642 with a companion showing the young David anointed by Samuel, a famous queen set against a shepherd boy chosen by God. The story is from Plutarch. Cleopatra has sailed to Tarsus to answer to Mark Antony, and here she steps ashore in blue among her women while Antony, in red, comes forward to meet her. Her gilded barge, hung with rich carpets, waits at the quay. By 1696 the picture hung in the king's bedroom at the Grand Trianon, and it had been enlarged the year before to fit.