Attributed to Marie-Françoise-Constance Mayer La Martinière (1775-1821)

The prototype of the present picture, measuring 193 x 144.5cm., was exhibited by Constance Mayer at the Salons of 1810 and 1814, together with its pendant, La mère heureuse; both entered the Louvre in 1815. These two pictures, together with a third, Le rêve du bonheur, datable to 1819, are known to have been painted by Mayer and exhibited under her name, although, as Sylvain Laveissière points out, Prud'hon, her friend and master, executed preparatory drawings and sketches in a smaller format for these works.