Studio of François Boucher Paris 1703 - 1770

Possibly Madame de Pompadour, 1721-1764, Rue St. Louis, Versailles;
With Demotte, Inc., Paris and New York, by 1914;
Private Collection, France;
With Newhouse Galleries, New York, by 1971, by whom sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, California, in 1971, nos. 71.PA.23 and 71.PA.24. 

Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The J. Paul Getty Collection, June 29-September 3, 1972, nos. 19, 20 (as Boucher);
'The Letter' only: Museo de Jade, San Jose, Costa Rica, Cinco siglos de obras maestras de la pintura en collecciones norteamericanas cedidas en préstamo a Costa Rica, May 6-June 30, 1978, no. 29 (as Boucher).

G. Mouray, "Trois Pastorales de Boucher", in Les Arts, vol. 147, March 1914, pp. 2-3 (as Boucher);
B.B. Fredericksen, Catalogue of the Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu 1972, pp. 97-98, nos. 132,133 (as Boucher);
'The Letter' only: Cinco siglos de obras maestras de la pintura en collecciones norteamericanas cedidas en préstamo a Costa Rica, exhibition catalogue, Detroit 1978, pp. 82-83, cat. no. 29, reproduced (as Boucher);
C. Bailey (ed.), The First Painters of the King. French Royal Taste from Louis XIV to the Revolution, exhibition catalogue, New York 1985, pp. 130-31, nos. 41A, 41B, reproduced (as Boucher);  
D. Jaffé, Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997, p. 14-15, reproduced (as Workshop of Boucher).

This pair previously formed a set of three which were last recorded together in 1914 when with Demotte (see Provenance). The missing canvas, Les amants surpris, was recorded in 1975 in the collection of M. Etienne Libert, Paris. It is probable that all three once formed part of a larger series of decorative panels that, judging from their shape, were inserted into wall panels.

The composition of The Letter was often repeated by Boucher and his workshop; see, for example, Boucher's now rectangular canvas, in color, in Washington, National Gallery, that was formerly shaped in similar fashion to the present work, or his larger work that sold, London, Sothebys, November 1, 1978, lot 31. The composition of The Two Shepherdesses does not recur in Boucher's oeuvre.