A vestal virgin

The present lot is one of four apparently autograph versions of the composition known today: the first was destroyed in a fire in the nineteenth century, but is recorded as having been signed and dated 1728; the second belongs to the museum of the Château de Versailles and is signed and dated 1733; a third was offered for sale in these rooms, 26 October 2001, lot 246. The latter, like the present lot, is neither signed nor dated but of a quality and manner of handling fully in keeping with that of the master himself.

The virgin servants of Vesta, the Roman household goddess and guardian of the hearth, were a favorite subject of Raoux; they were to be understood as (admittedly flirtatious) emblems of chastity.