The characteristic facial types of the putti in the present pictures are comparable with the drawings by Taraval in The Nationalmuseum, Stolkholm (P. Bjurstrom, Drawings in Swedish Public Collections, 4, nos. 1189-92 and 1195-97), and with Taraval's decorative paintings in Sweden (see, for instance, the decorative designs of putti in the Gauffin Collection, Sweden and those offered at Bukowski, Stolkholm, 5-6 Nov.1923, lot 49 and 6-8 April 1949, lot 75). The putti, foliage and treatment of landscape recall the Three Amorini playing with a Birdcage and the Three Amorini playing with a Bird's Nest in the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki and the Fine Arts Academy of Finland (Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Foreign Schools Catalogue, I, Paintings, Helsinki, 1988, nos. S124 and S125.)

The allegorical subject matter of the present works is in keeping with much of Guillaume Taraval's known oeuvre. A pupil of Claude Audran, he was appointed to oversee the mainly French team of artists decorating the new royal palace in Stockholm. Taraval arrived in Stockholm in 1732, and in 1735 started a school of drawing which later became the Académie Royale des Arts. He stayed in Sweden as court painter to King Frederick I until his death in 1750. He is perhaps best known as the father and early teacher of Hugues Taraval (1729-1785). A drawing of Venus, Cupid and Pegasus in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, attributed to Hugues Taraval and dated to his period in Sweden, bears close resemblance to the horse and putti of the present pictures, and clearly demonstrates Guillaume Taraval's strong influence on his son's early stylistic development.