Original 1879 lithograph depicting a scene from Berlioz's Les Troyens (Trojans at Carthage), act II, scene 2, “Nuit d’ivresse et d’extase,” published by Lemercier & Cie, Paris, signed "H. Fantin" in pencil lower right. Lithograph on chine collé, second state (of 2), unnumbered, one of 25 impressions. Image size 8.625 x 11.625 inches (22.5 x 30 cm), the full sheet 14.25 x 20 inches (37.5 x 50.5 cm). Blocks of toning, scattered foxing and a moisture stain to lower left mount, else fine. Hédiard 22. 

Perhaps never has anything in music better captured the intoxication of romantic love than the love duet from Les Troyens depicted here. Dido sits on a marble bench to which a semi-circular marble wall serves as a backrest. Aeneas, on his knees at her feet, looks at her tenderly. On the right, above the two lovers and behind the bench, is a tree. In the middle of the waters, is a small round temple, surrounded by columns. To the left, in the foreground, on the beach, is the helmet and shield of Aeneas. The moon, which can be seen in the middle of the sky, illuminates the whole scene. 

"He was imbued with the spirit of Romanticism...Music provided a reservoir of ideas in which Fantin-Latour's escapism could find imaginative expression; he discovered the dreaming idealistic side of life that he did not find in contemporary society." (Jane Turner, "Grove Dictionary of Art: Late 19th Century, " p. 170)