Follower of François Boucher

These charming canvases are very likely to be sketches for overdoor or overmantel paintings, which were favoured throughout the eighteenth century in France. Painted panels depicting allegorical subjects, floral compositions and idealising peasant life were characteristic features of Rococo interiors.

We are grateful to Alastair Laing for tentatively suggesting an attribution to Jacques Philippe Caresme (1734–96), on the basis of digital photographs.