Putti blowing bubbles

We are grateful to Mr. Alastair Laing for confirming the attribution to Fran/dcois Boucher and workshop from a transparency (private communication, 20 October 2004). He dates the composition to the mid- 1730s, when the artist and his studio produced a number of pictures of this subject for decorative purposes. Mr Laing cites one other composition of Putti blowing bubbles (see Exhibition catalogue, European Old Master Paintings, Stair Sainty Matthiesen, New York, 1987, no. 63).

The oblong format and perspective of the present work suggests it may have been painted for an overdoor.