Taken from a story in La Fontaine’s 'Contes', so popular with readers in the seventeenth century, but considered inappropriate subject matter for painters until the beginning of the following century, when the status of genre painting rose. Part III, verse xiv, recounts the story of The Little Dog who secretes Gold and Jewels. The hero Atis takes advantage of the absence of the beautiful Argie’s husband, and, with the help of the fairy Manto, gains admittance to his beloved’s boudoir. Here Atis, dressed in the costume of a pilgrim, with a set of bagpipes, pays court to Argie, while her maids avidly gather the jewels and coins which Manto, disguised as a spaniel, conjures up with every shake of his coat. The picture is one of twelve illustrations to the Contes painted by Lancret, of which ten survive.