The Education of the Virgin

This is probably a reduced riccordo after Coypel's own picture of the same subject painted before 1738 and known in two versions, T. Lefrançois, Charles Coypel, Paris, 1994, nos. P.168-9. The composition was engraved by Louis Desplaces along with a pendant. The two prints were announced in the Mercure de France of January 1738. The subtitle of the picture is L'éducation douce et insinuante donnée par une Sainte, in contrast to that of its pendant called L'éducation sèche et rebutante donnée par une prude. The latter picture is dated 1736.
Two smaller autograph riccordi by Coypel in pastel of Heraclitus and Democritus were sold in the Arts of France sale at Christie's New York, 2 November 2000, lot 195.