ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN BAPTISTE HUET (PARIS 1745 - 1811), AFTER FRANCOIS BOUCHER (PARIS 1703 - 1770)
Young boy with a sheep
red chalk on paper
280 x 430 mm (11 x 17 in.)
watermark

The present work is a copy after a red chalk drawing in the Musée du Louvre, Paris attributed to the school of Francois Boucher. According to Alistair Laing, however, the Louvre drawing may actually be autograph, and the present work a copy with variations by Jean-Baptiste Huet. Huet occasionally copied Boucher’s drawings after his death, but included his own additions and digressions in his compositions. In the present work he omits the head of the third sheep and adds a little landscape definition to the setting.

We are grateful to Alastair Laing for his help in cataloguing this lot.