François Boucher

While there is some doubt as to Boucher's authorship of this sheet - Alastair Lang once suggested an attribution to Parrocel, there is reason to maintain the Boucher attribution. An engraving of perhaps the same donkey based on an original Boucher drawing said to be in Madame d'Azaincourt's collection was engraved in reverse by Gilles Demarteau (1722-1776) with the title "La muletière". (According to the text of this print, Boucher's drawing was in the collection of Madame d'Azaincourt.) Demarteau executed this chalk-manner etching and engraving as one of a group of four prints, the other three subjects being: "Paysanne se lavant les pieds dans un ruisseau; Jeune fille à la raquette; Jeune paysan". (For a reproduction of "La muletière", see Jean-Richard 1978, p. 190 no. 679.) In Demarteau's print the donkey is similarly posed and placed on the sheet to the present sheet. But unlike the donkey in the Library's drawing, the one in the print carries a full load and is tended to by a young woman that suggests Boucher made more than one study of the donkey.