Pierre Puget

Although subjects such as this are typically associated with the many depictions of the campaigns of Louis XIV by artists such as Adam Frans van der Meulen, Charles Le Brun and Israel Silvestre, the technique is very typical of Pierre Puget, so the traditional attribution, inscribed by an early hand on the reverse of the panel, should be taken very seriously.  

Puget was active as a sculptor, architect, draughtsman and print designer. His drawings -- often, as here, on thin vellum -- are typically executed in precisely the combination of fine penwork in two colours of ink, worked up with grey wash, that we see in this refined and accomplished drawing. The unusual subject might suggest that the drawing derives from a painting or print by one of the above-mentioned artists, but evidence of alterations such as the removal of one of the foreground walking figures, and changes in the positioning of some horses' legs, show that it is surely an original composition. The city under siege in the background remains, however, to be identified, and perhaps this, in contrast to the works of artists such as Van der Meulen, is actually an imaginary scene.