Similar studies were engraved after his father by Frederick Bloemaert in Tekenvoorbeelden, published in eight volumes by Bernard Picart in 1740 as Oorspronkelijk en vermaard Konstrijk Tekenboek van Abraham Bloemaert. Volume five contains 'kindertjes', with plates 109 and 177 showing similar figures to those in the present lot. Bloemaert used such studies for drawings like that in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, of the dead Christ held by Putti (E. Bock. J. Rosenberg, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis sämtlicher Zeichnungen, Die Niederländischen Meister, Berlin, 1930, no. 1409).
Professor Bolten will include the present lot in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné on Bloemaert's drawings