The present lot is the drawn version of the picture (Niemeijer, op.cit. no. 697 S), once in the collection of J.B.P. Lebrun in Paris, only known through the engraving in the same sense by L.F. Garreau of 1787 in 'Galerie des peintres.... par J.B.P. Lebrun' III, Paris, 1796, facing p.5. Lebrun comments (op.cit. p.5): 'Celui que j'ai fait graver est dans le genre oú it s'est le plus fait admirer. Une connaissance exacte de la perspective et des effets piquans ont répondu un charme réel dans ses reproductions justement rechercheés en Hollande'. Troost was especially known for his interior scenes, including theatrical, genre and military scenes. Certain characters in the military scenes reappear in several drawings. As officers at the time were allowed to wear whatever they chose, it is difficult to identify individual regiments with their different colours.
'The first military scene by Troost is a drawing dated 1736 in the Museum Teyler, Haarlem. As from 1740 onwards, more and more military scenes seem to have been produced, when Troost was already 40 or 50 years old, and thus forming an important part of his late work.' (J.W. Niemeijer, op.cit., p. 91)