Pierre Rosenberg has related the present drawing, together with a drawing of similar technique from the Woodner Collection The Alarm in the Camp of Chilperic, to Boucher's designs for the engravings by Maurice Baquoy which illustrated the third edition of Father Gabriel Daniel's Histoire de France, published by Denys Mariette and Jacques Rollin in 1729 (see A. Laing, François Boucher 1703-1770, p. 117). The title on the mount of the present drawing relates to the title of one of the engravings contained in Daniel's History. Mariette mentions '26 dessiens [sic] et Vignettes' dated to 1721 which Boucher drew for this project (J.P. Mariette, Abecedario ... , ed. by P. de Chenneviérs and A. de Montaiglon, I, 1851, pp. 165-6). It would seem, however, that Mariette was referring to the drawings of an album from his own collection, now in the Louvre. The technique of the preparatory drawings in the Louvre album, pen and black ink, grey wash, and the tight execution relate directly to their function as designs for engravings, they are also, at 73 x 141mm. half the size of the present sheet. The were in the past given to Cazes by J. Guiffrey and P. Marcel, Inventaire général des Dessins du Musée du Louvre et du Musée de Versailles, Paris, 1909, III, no. 2189, illustrated. This has led Pierre Rosenberg to suggest that the present sheet and the drawing of The Camp of Chilperic may have formed part of a series of preparatory drawings related to the same project. A drawing of the Battle of the Dunes from the Roesler collection (sold Christie's, New York, 31 May 1990, lot 43, illustrated) can also be included in this second series.

All three drawings were exhibited as François Boucher at the Este Gallery, New York in 1953. This attribution was contested in an anonymous article in The Connoisseur of the same year which proposed a new attribution to Fragonard. The attribution to Fragonard is not suprising considering the energetic and free handling of these sheets, but as Alastair Laing has pointed out individuality and stylistic invention, particularly suited to the small scale, characterize Boucher's 'intensely personal' manner before his trip to Rome in 1728. In Rome Boucher evolved a new style more suited to the large scale decorative history painting of his later career. The present drawing is a rare example of Boucher's early creative phase