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This went up at the Paris Salon of 1836, when Romantic painters were mining old stories for pictures that told a small drama at a glance. The tale is one of La Fontaine's fables. A lion falls for a shepherdess and, to prove he is safe, lets his teeth and claws be filed down, after which her family drives him off defenceless. Roqueplan added a twist the fable never mentions. He has the shepherdess herself doing the filing, turning her into something closer to Delilah cutting Samson's hair. The picture was an instant success and was bought by Ferdinand-Philippe, the eldest son of King Louis-Philippe, before it eventually made its way to London.