François Boucher Paris 1703 - 1770

In a letter dated 19 November 1997, Alastair Laing confirmed the attribution to Boucher, noting that this drawing is part of a goup of 'apparently subjectless drawings of men of vaguely biblical/oriental appearance'.  On the basis of comparison with a drawing of Judith Haranguing the People, dated 1759, now in Darmstadt, Mr Laing dates the group to circa 1760.  A further two drawings from the series are in the Louvre (inv. no. 24772) and in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (PI 48);  the latter drawing is of the same technique as this sheet.