The artist won the second prize in the Grand-Prix of the Académie Royale in 1748 when he was a pupil of Boucher. In 1751 he went to Rome as a pensionnaire du roi and his talents were praised by the director, Natoire. Rather than facing an uncertain future in Paris, La Traverse chose to accept the offer of the Marquess of Osuna to return with her to Madrid. Although he failed to obtain any royal commissions he stayed in Madrid, occupied more as a courtier and diplomat than as a painter. The largest group of his drawings, the majority executed in the same technique as the present sheet, are at Madrid, M. Sandoz, A Group of Drawings by Charles de La Traverse in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Master Drawings, 1972, X, pp. 379-82, pls. 43-53b