Lemonier won the Premier Prix de Rome in 1772, becoming an academician in 1789. Under Napoleon he became administrator of the Manafacture des Gobelins. The present drawing evidently dates from the artist's stay in Rome. Comparable in technique with drawings after the Antique from an album given in 1907 to the Louvre by the artist's grandson, J. Guiffrey and P. Marcel, Inventaire général des dessins du Musée du Louvre et du Musée de Versailles, Ecole Français, Paris, 1921, IX, pp.28-56