[1] The left part ended up with the Patti Birch Trust by 1991, on long-term loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

At the end of 2009 the Montpellier Agglomération (guardian of the Musée Fabre) used two private donations to purchase the left hand part and thus reunite the painting.

The painting depicts Venus seducing Adonis under a tree surrounded by putti.

The episode was to end in tragedy when Adonis is gored by a wild boar when hunting the following day, as Venus had fearfully predicted.

Her discovery of his dead body was portrayed in Poussin's later work Venus Weeping for Adonis.