Scenes drawn from the history of the Valois Dynasty that ruled France from 1328–1589 were frequent subjects for Comte. In this highly finished painting of a courtier from the King’s court, the artist selected just one figure from a much larger painting of a royal gathering in the council chamber at the Chateau of Blois. It was likely intended to be a souvenir of the artist’s Salon painting which once hung in the galleries of the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. Instead of surrounding this figure with other onlookers, here Comte substituted a handsome dog, a suitable companion for the elegantly dressed courtier. During the 1870s, Lucas had repeated contact with the artist, a native of Lyon, as he negotiated the purchase of a work from 1874, A Scene at Fontainebleau–Costume of Louis XI, for William Corcoran for his Washington gallery.