The present drawing was engraved by Jean Audran in the Figures de Différents Caractères de Paysages et d'Etudes dessinées d'apres Nature par Antoine Watteau. The Caractères were an attempted catalogue raisonné, published in two volumes, by Jean Audran on a commission from Watteau's friend Jean de Julienne. The first volume, published in 1726, contained 133 prints while the latter, which appeared two years later, had 218 plates. Most of the drawings engraved came from Jean de Julienne's collection and others were added from the collections of Hénin, the abbé Haranger, the dealer Gersaint, and the comte de Caylus, who had all received the drawings directly from Watteau during the artist's last illness.
Another drawing by Watteau engraved by Audran was sold in these Rooms, 2 July 1985, lot 99, illustrated.
Ironically the prints of the Figures de différents caractères were later used by dealers to fake Watteau's works: the figure in the present drawing could be found in a picture in the Musée de Lille, formerly attributed to Watteau for the figures and Boyer for the landscape, E.H. Zimmerman, Watteau, Des Meisters Werke, Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1912, no. 156, illustrated. The figures, copied in reverse from the print, disappeared during a cleaning in 1969, M. Roland Michel, Watteau, An Artist of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1984, p. 300. The Lille picture was probably the one included by the expert Paillet in the Gevigney sale in 1779, together with a picture painted by Watteau and Norblin. The latter was born twenty four years after the former's death!
The present drawing was part of a group of 79 from Miss James's collection sold at Christie's in 1891. The collection, formed in the 19th Century, had sheets from the collections of Paignon-Dijonval, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Vivant Denon and Lord Spencer.
This drawing is dated early in Watteau's career, circa 1711-12.