[1][2] It depicts Napoleon, Emperor of France bidding farewell to the Russian ruler Alexander I on 9 July 1807 following the agreement of the Peace of Tilsit.

[3] Napoleon having first met Alexander on a raft in the middle of the Neman on 25 June, the two men had struck up a close bond.

They negotiated the end of the War of the Fourth Coalition in which Napoleon had decisively defeat Russia and its Prussian allies.

Alexander agreed to join Napoleon's Continental System directed at France's principal enemy Britain.

Also included in the painting are the French foreign minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord and Joachim Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law and a noted cavalry commander.