Lot Essay
Alastair Laing has kindly confirmed the attribution to Boucher on studying the drawing in the original. Mr Laing suggests that the drawing was made in the 1730s.
The present drawing can be related in feeling to the series of etchings made by Boucher after Abraham Bloemaert, published by Odieuvre in 1735 (R. Shoolman Slatkin, 'Abraham Bloemaert and François Boucher: Afinity and Relationship', Master Drawings, 1976 (XIV), pp. 247-260). A drawing by Boucher after Bloemaert, which he etched for the series, is in the Musée d'art et d'histoire, Narbonne (A. Laing, The Drawings of François Boucher, exhib. cat., New York, The Frick Collection, and elsewhere, 2003-4, no. 8).
The present drawing can be related in feeling to the series of etchings made by Boucher after Abraham Bloemaert, published by Odieuvre in 1735 (R. Shoolman Slatkin, 'Abraham Bloemaert and François Boucher: Afinity and Relationship', Master Drawings, 1976 (XIV), pp. 247-260). A drawing by Boucher after Bloemaert, which he etched for the series, is in the Musée d'art et d'histoire, Narbonne (A. Laing, The Drawings of François Boucher, exhib. cat., New York, The Frick Collection, and elsewhere, 2003-4, no. 8).