Designed in the Louis XIV arabesque manner, these panels reflect the direct influence of Jean Bérain (d. 1711), who succeeded as Dessinateur de la chambre et du Cabinet du Roi in 1674. For instance, the profile satyr-head finials of the cresting and Venus scallop-shell apron feature in Bérain's designs for the hôtel de Mailly (F. Kimball, The creation of Rococo Decorative Style, Ontario, 1980, figs. 39-41), as do the symmetrical lambrequin-draped pedestals (ibid, fig. 42). The trellis and use of acanthus in shaded strapwork areas, combined with baskets of flowers, is also characteristic of Bérain (ibid, figs. 115-6), although it can also be seen in the oeuvre of Pierre Le Pautre and Jean-Baptiste Pillement. Moreover, the pronounced symmetry of the strapwork arabesques is displayed in the background of the portrait of Le Grand Dauphin dans son cabinet, a room which Bérain was responsible for, which now hangs in the Musée National de Versailles

A related arabesque panel at the château de Réveillon, attributed to Claude Audran, similarly centred by an oval medallion depicting one of La Fontaine's fables, was commissioned by Jules-Robert de Cotte, the son of Louis XIV's surintendant des Bâtiments, circa 1730 (illustrated in J. Whitehead, The French Interior in the Eighteenth Century, Toppan, 1992, pp. 102-3)

Although the sitters remain tantalisingly unidentified, the portrait on the extreme right is reputedly that of madame de La Rochefoucauld

A related screen with the arms of the duc d'Orléans, although of more rococo design and not dated, was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 15 December 1983, lot 89