A woman playing lute

Parrocel belongs to a dynasty of artists from Avignon spanning almost two centuries. Trained with his father Pierre (1670-1739), in 1753 Joseph was admitted to the Académie Royale as a history painter. The annotation ‘d'après nature’ on the mount is certainly autograph and suggests the model was part of the artist’s close circle or even a family member, possibly one of his daughters. This study relates to a sketch of man writing at Besançon (inv. no. D.1704) similarly drawn on brown paper.
We are grateful to Fabrice Denis for confirming the attribution on the basis of a digital photograph.