I originally painted a study of the ocean shore by sunset. I used reference from several photos I downloaded from stock photography. I thought I'd spice it up by adding a knight and mermaid encounter. I prefer musketeers, so I added D'Artagnan instead. She's entreating him because in her world, mermaids are sterile and have to mate with mortals. So somewhere, the famous Dumas character has finned progeny!