Jean-Antoine Watteau (Valenciennes 1684-1721 Nogent-sur-Marne)

A counterproof of this drawing, dated around 1709-10, is in the National-museum, Stockholm (inv. NM 2827/1863; Rosenberg and Prat, op. cit., fig. 32a). This counterproof was bought directly from Watteau by count Carl Gustaf Tessin (1695-1770) in 1715 and demonstrates that the present drawing was originally larger, as it includes two further studies of women: one seated with an open fan, another standing. The latter was used by the artist in his painting Actors on a fairground in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (P. Rosenberg et al., Watteau 1684-1721, exhib. cat., Washington, National Gallery of Art and elsewhere, 1984, no. 10).