The Pierpont Morgan Library has a manuscript catalogue of the collection of Monsieur de Julienne written in the collector's lifetime, and illustrated with plates depicting the hanging of pictures on the walls of the various apartments of his hôtel. Two pastel Heads of Girls by Boucher are recorded. These are almost certainly the ones in the sale of 1767, yet their measurements differ from those given in the catalogue: '9 pouces pas 7½' (247 x 202mm.). These measurements are very close to the present pastel which, in view of the extreme rarity of pastels in the artist's oeuvre, strengthens the theory that they are one and the same.
The present pastel was most probably intended to be a finished work of art rather than a preparatory drawing. In the same way that the pastel Head of a Boy holding a Carrot in the Art Institute of Chicago is directly inspired by the boy in the painting of the Kitchen Maid and young Boy in the Feray Collection, Sainte Andrene, France, the present head is very close to the head of The Woman fastening her Garter with her Maid in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid, which was painted in 1742.
We are grateful to Alistair Laing for his help in cataloguing this drawing