The bathing nude was a popular subject in eighteenth century France. Boucher, for example, completed a number of versions of this subject. Boucher’s Vénus Recevant le Prix de la Beauté of 1762, recorded in the collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild in Paris, although differing in some details, is an example related to the present lot (see A. Ananoff, François Boucher, Geneva, 1976, vol. II, p. 222, no. 563). In both works Venus steps with one foot from a seated position into a stream, partially swathed in loose clothing, creating two strong diagonals in the composition. Other depictions of bathing nymphs are recorded by Charlier, some include the loose white robes, pink shroud and pink hair ribbon seen in the present lot (see G. Reynolds, Wallace Collection Catalogue of Miniatures, London, 1980, pp. 87-100).