Roger Rearick noted an analogous use of colour notations in a study of a Bishop and a sleeping dog at Bergamo, Rearick, op. cit., fig.19. Although the present drawing cannot be related to any specific painting, Rearick notes that after Paolo's death two comparable dogs appear in a shop painting Return of Doge Contarini from Chioggia in the Palazzo Ducale, Venice. Presumably studies such as the present one remained in the stock of drawings which could be used by the studio. Rearick suggests that this is a late drawing 'since its touch is more hesitant and fragile [than the Bergamo drawing] as in other very late chalk studies by Paolo'.

Professor Richard Cocke has kindly confirmed the attribution