FRENCH SCHOOL, CIRCA 1670
After Aruncus or the Gleaner, a garden herm in Versailles
red chalk on paper
460 x 290 mm (18 x 11 1/2 in.)

The present work is a copy after the marble sculpture executed in 1656 in Rome by an unknown hand, after a design by Nicolas Poussin (1594 - 1665). The marble belonged to Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680), and was originally displayed in the gardens of his castle in Vaux-le-Vicomte.The sculpture was later engraved by Simon Thomassin (1652? - 1732) (2), and moved to Versailles before 1850 to replace another herm of Winter (3).

(1) 2060 x 655 (inv. 1850.9188; MR1976)
(2) Recueil des Figures, Groupes, Thermes [sic], Fontaines, Vases et autres ornemens tels qu’ils se Voyent à présent dans le Château et Parc de Versailles, gravé d’après les originaux par Sieur Thomassin, Graveur du Roy, A Paris, chez ledit Thomassin, rue St. Jacques, vis à vis la rue du Plastre à l’enseigne de l’Annonciation et de l’Espérance, Paris,1694, no. 185
(3) B. Rosasco, 'The Herms of Versailles in the 1680s', The Princeton University Library Chronicle , Vol. 76, No. 1-2 (Winter 2015), pp.
145-17