François Lemoyne (Paris 1688-1737)

The attribution of this painting to François Le Moyne was endorsed by Dr. Jean-Luc Bordeaux, who recognized this as a characteristic early work of circa 1715-20 (written communication, 15 April 2001). He noted that the figure of the young mother swaddling her child at left closely resembles the figure in another early work, Joshuah destroying Idolatry, private collection (see J.-L. Bordeaux, François Le Moyne and his generation, Paris, 1984, pp. 69-70, no. 1, illustrated). A similar preparatory study by Le Moyne, now in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, and produced for his now lost work, ‘Mai’, shows The Blinding of Elymas (op. cit. p. 82, no. 23, illustrated). This canvas is also almost certainly a study for an as-yet unidentified larger work.