La Marseillaise is the national anthem of France.  It was written by a French Army General in the Spring of 1792.  The original title was Chant de guerre aux armées des frontiers (roughly, “War Song of the Frontier Army”).  The song's lyrics reflect the invasion of France by foreign armies from Prussia and Austria, which was going on at the time. 

A few months later, a group of Revolutionary volunteers from Marseille, marched to the palace of Louis XVI.  As the group entered Paris, singing this song, Parisians named it “La Marseillaise”.  It soon became the rallying call for the French Revolution.

This is one of 4 paintings that we have, depciting famous French songs, done in the mid 1900’s.  They were recovered from a bar in Brittany.