The present lot is one of three painted versions of this composition, the others being in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archeologie, Boulogne-dur-Mer (65 x 54cm.; Laing, op. cit., p. 130, no. 14, illustrated) and the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (74 x 95cm.; A. Ananoff, François Boucher, 1976, I, p. 185, no. 48, illustrated), the later being described by Count Carl Gustaf Tessin, who purchased it in 1741/2, as only 'retouché par Boucher'.

Alastair Laing considers the present painting, as well as the other versions, to be by Boucher but with studio assistance, and he dates these canvases to soon after Boucher's return from Rome. The composition is adapted from a highly finished, upright drawing (Cabinet des Dessin, Louvre; idem., fig. 99), which, in turn, derives from a drawing, 'The Waterfall and the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli', which was executed in Rome in 1730 (Rijksprentenkabinett, Amsterdam). This was one of the classic views drawn and painted by foreign artists in Italy. The composition of the Stockholm version and the present lot extends to the right and left sides, while the Boulogne picture follows more closely the vertical format of the Louvre drawing.

Laing considers the present painting superior in quality to the Stockholm picture. He also notes that of the three versions this is the only one which might be identified from its dimensions as the painting sold as Boucher in 1774