The present drawing is related to one of the plates of the Figures de différents caractères de Paysages et d'Etudes dessinées d'après nature par Antoine Watteau, in which a figure of a seated musician appears wearing a similar costume. The two volumes of plates were published after the artist's death by Jean de Julienne, one in 1726 and the other in 1728. They contained respectively 133 and 218 plates and aimed at reproducing all the known drawings by the artist. Most of the engraved drawings came from the collection of Jean de Julienne to whom the artist had given some 450 sheets during his last illness. To that corpus were added various sheets from the collections of other friends like Henin, the abbé Haranger, the dealer Gersaint, and the comte de Caylus. Most of the drawings were hastily etched by various artists, including Boucher, which meant that many of the prints were weak and thus rejected.
Most of the drawings were engraved in reverse: however, as in the case of the present sheet, counterproofs, which were initially taken to fix the chalk of the drawing, were also used. The counterproof of the present drawing was also in the Mayor Collection, op. cit., no. 553.
Margaret Morgan Grasselli, on the basis of a photograph, confirms the attribution and dates the drawing to 1711