Anatole Demidoff, a member of a powerful Russian family, was raised in France.
He became a count in 1837, prince of San Donato in 1840 (after purchasing this land near Florence), and in 1851 married Princess Mathilde (1820-1904), the daughter of Jerome de Bonaparte.
It may have been through the intermediary of Count Charles de Mornay (Delacroix painted a double portrait of these two men), that he met the painter, from whom he then commissioned a certain number of works, including two canvases on the theme of Chrisopher Columbus, which were displayed in his famous San Donato gallery.
