Le Petit Elve: portrait of a boy holding a folio

A version of the picture by Drouais, signed and dated 1760, that was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1761, no. 83. Another, similarly signed and dated, version was sold at Christie's, New York, 4 October 1996, lot 105 ($178,500). The composition served as a tapestry designed by Michel-Henri Cozette and made at the Gobelins factory.

The picture was almost certainly acquired by William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale (1787-1872), who formed a notable collection of French eighteenth-century pictures and furniture.