Footnotes

Provenance
J. Martin
His sale, France, 30 October 1983, lot 23 (according to a label on the reverse)
Private Collection, UK

This drawing corresponds, in reverse, to an engraving by Demarteau (No. 19; Jean-Richard, nos. 599 & 600); the second state of this, however, says that the original was in the collection of Dezallier d'Argenville, and this is confirmed by its presence as one of two sanguines in lot 473 of the latter's posthumous sale om 18th – 28th January 1779, the entry for which specifically states that it had been engraved by Demarteau. That drawing is not now known, but it must almost certainly have been in the same direction as the present drawing in the expectation that, when engraved in reverse (as was usual), the porte-crayon would be in the child's right hand. Alastair Laing suggests (private correspondence, May 2019) that the present drawing is Boucher's first sketch of the composition that he went on to make more clearly defined in the sanguine version which he gave to Demarteau to engrave. A small indication that this might have been the case is that in the present drawing the child's hand is almost cut off by the ending of the sheet, and that the two fingers nearest it are barely defined; a mere copyist might have left himself more space, and have given the fingers greater definition. He also notes that the first state of the engraving was printed in black, the same colour as the present drawing. Furthermore he mentions that the widths of the present drawing and the print are all but identical, although the height of the drawing is less, because of the void above the child's head in the print; this is the kind of adjustment that an engraver had to make, constrained by the standard sizes of copper-plates.

We are grateful to Alastair Laing for his assistance in cataloguing this work and for confirming its authenticity.