Circle of Jean-Baptiste Pater (Valenciennes 1695-1736 Paris)

This composition relates to Pater's Les Baigneuses, a larger work, on canvas (102 x 143 cm.), that was acquired - probably in the 1730s or 1740s - by Frederick the Great of Prussia. It was recorded as number 12 in the inventory of Frederick's paintings compiled in 1773 by Matthias Österreich, inspector of the picture gallery at Sans Souci, one of thirty-one paintings by Pater in the royal collection at Potsdam, where it remains to this day (see Ingersoll-Smouse, 1928, no. 329, fig. 89). Size apart, the only significant differences evident in the Potsdam picture occur on the far sides of the painting, which extend several inches further than the present work and include one additional figure on the left - a child - and a bending servant on the right. The Potsdam painting is conceived with a maturity and sophistication found in his works of the early to mid-1730s.