François Boucher (Paris 1703-1770)

Based on a composition by Samuel van Hoogstraten (Dordrecht 1627-1678) now in the Fondation Custodia, Paris (Rembrandt et son école, exhib. cat., Paris, Fondation Custodia, 1997, under no. 69). During Boucher's lifetime, Hoogstraten's drawing (which was then thought to be by Rembrandt) was in the celebrated Goll van Franckenstein Collection in Amsterdam and therefore the present work must have been executed when Boucher visited Holland in 1766 (see B. Schreiber-Jacoby, 'Boucher et Rembrandt', in Boucher et les peintres du Nord, exhib. cat., Dijon, Musée Magnin, 2004, p. 16. Another drawing of the same composition attributed to Boucher is in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. 1256).