A preparatory drawing for The Sacrifice of Iphigenia dated 1728, sold in these Rooms, 24 June 1945, lot 134 and now in a private collection in Lisbon (fig. 1), J.-L. Bordeaux, François Le Moyne and his Generation, Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1984, no. P71. The composition, engraved by Laurent Cars, was recorded at that time as part of the Cabinet Bourret. Bourret, a tax collector, bought from François Berger a large collection of pictures by Le Moyne which, according to Nonnotte and Dezallier d'Argenville, he subsequently enlarged. In 1764, the picture which then belonged to François-Christophe de La Live de Jully was described as 'un des plus beaux tableaux de chevalet de l'auteur, la finesse du dessin, la sagacité de la couleur, la justesse et la noblesse des expressions et en général toutes les parties de la peinture s'y trouvent assemblées' (one of the artist's most beautiful easel paintings, with a delicate draftsmanship, a sharp use of colours, accurate and noble expressions, and in general all the elements of painting are found assembled in this work), Pierpont Morgan Library manuscript, Cabinet de M. La Live de Jully, p. 52. When the picture was sold in 1770, it fetched 9,050 livres which was far more than that of works by Watteau, Boucher, Carle Van Loo or Greuze.
No other drawings for the composition have been recorded. Only an oil sketch survives, formerly in the Nourri Collection, and now in the Louvre