Women in Sicilian and Maltese costume

Possibly intended for Houël's Voyage Pittoresque des Isles de Sicilie, de Lipari et de Malte, published in 1783-89 following the artist's journey to Sicily in 1776-79. The book was illustrated with 264 aquatints by Houël after his own drawings mainly of places of interest but also, as with the present sheets, of ethnographical subjects. 46 drawings were bought by the Louvre, and a further 500 were sold to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, of which 260 remain in the Hermitage.