Pierre Subleyras (Saint-Gilles-du-Gard 1699-1749 Rome)

A copy of a drawing in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (inv. 502 recto), showing figures which Abraham Bloemaert later used in the foreground of his Saint John the Baptist Preaching (Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, inv. 2045). The Hermitage drawing was also etched by François Boucher as plate 11 of his Livre d'Etudes (see J. Bolten, Abraham Bloemaert c.1565-1651: The Drawings, Leiden, 2007, I, p. 328, no. 1001; II, p. 365, fig. 1001).