This piece has long been regarded as a sketch for the picture of the same name at the Louvre, Didon. Énée racontant à Didon les malheurs de la ville de Troie (INV 5184), a huge success at the Paris Salon of 1817, of which several versions are known as well as some preparatory sketches. It shows the arrival in Carthage of the Trojan hero Aeneas, who is asked by the queen of the city, Dido, to relate his adventures and, in particular, his project of founding Rome. According to the fourth book of Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas and Dido fell in love as he was telling his tale.