Along the banks of a river or lake, underneath a tree, a cluster of men and women surround a man in a black robe seated on a blue chair before a white tent. The seated man is dressed like a cleric, and behind him stands a man in blue with a distinctive hat. The attention of many participants has been attracted by something to the far left, beyond the scene. The scene has the hallmarks of the theater, and Lami was a frequent illustrator of performances. A theatrical subject might explain the more historic, eighteenth-century effect of the costumes. At the same time, a late date of around 1880 could account for the summary, unfinished execution that is more loose and imprecise than in the artist's finished watercolors. If the sheet is indeed by Lami, then the forest setting and suggestion of a fountain in the left background, along with the palette and array of odd figures, raise the question of whether it might be a preliminary idea for one of the artist's most satiric drawings, a comic watercolor devoted to The Fountain of Youth, that was commissioned by Anatole Demidoff, now in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center as Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.
If the sheet is indeed by Lami, then the forest setting and suggestion of a fountain in the left background, along with the palette and array of odd figures, raise the question of whether it might be a preliminary idea for one of the artist's most satiric drawings, a comic watercolor devoted to The Fountain of Youth, that was commissioned by Anatole Demidoff, now in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center as Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.