William-Adolphe Bouguereau (La Rochelle 1825-1905)

This sketch is a study for a painting titled 'Le Travail interrompu', which exists in two versions, the largest being a canvas dated 1891 at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College (D. Bartoli with F. Ross, William Bouguereau. Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work, New York, 2010, nos. 1891/15); the smaller version is in a private collection (ibid., no. 1891/15A, ill.). In 1894, the composition was also engraved under the title Cupid's whispers.