Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1853. The French title, under which the painting was exhibited at the Salon, is taken from a poem by Charles Reynaud dedicated to Meissonier. The figures wear costume derived from the sixteenth century and the subject evokes sixteenth-century Venetian painting as well as the eighteenth-century fête galante. The standing lady in pink is probably Apollonie Sabatier (1822–1890), a friend of Meissonier who is said to have become the mistress of Richard Wallace in either the 1840s or 1860s. Among the many artists and writers who attended her salons in the rue Frochot were Meissonier, Baudelaire, Flaubert and Gautier (see also Meissonier P337).