Design for a wall decoration with a fountain and two stoves

The attribution to de Wailly was confirmed in a letter to Sir Francis Watson from Monique Mosser on 1 May 1990. She noted that some of the features reappear in other drawings by the artist, such as the console table which is similar to that in de Wailly's designs for the Hôtel d’Argenson, or the globe which is related to one in de Wailly's plans for the Hôtel de Gave (The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg). The closest decorative programme known by de Wailly is that for the main Salon of the Palazzo Spinola in Genoa and so Mosser suggested that the present drawing may be a first idea for that project, in which the architectural orders are still Ionic and not yet Corinthian, as they appear in the final scheme. A drawing which appears to relate to the same project was sold at Millon et Cie., Paris, on 26 June 2008, lot 84, where it was given to Gilles-Paul Cauvet (1731-1788).