Innocence Preferring Love to Wealth

This composition, executed with a young female pupil, Marie-Constance Mayer, was acquired by Prince Nikolai Yusupov, a Russian statesman and diplomat who lived in Paris from 1803 to 1810. A connoisseur of the arts, Yusupov acquired paintings for the Hermitage during Catherine II’s reign and later managed the affairs of the museum.