A young man, bust-length, looking to the right

A study for the head of the man embracing a woman at the left in La Fête dans un Bois, a painting now in the Wallace Collection, London (G. Wildenstein, Lancret, Paris, 1924, no. 137, fig. 42). Dr. Mary Tavener Holmes noted that the the soft handling of the white chalk and the characteristic shape of the eyes suggest a dating of the early 1720s. The combination of different coloured chalks can be compared to the technique of Gilles Embracing Columbine, with studies of his head and hand dated circa 1720-25 (see M. Tavener Holmes, Nicolas Lancret: 1690-1743, exhib. cat., New York, The Frick Collection, 1991, no. 24).

We are grateful to Dr. Mary Tavener Holmes for confirming the attribution on the basis of a digital photograph.