Watermark: none.
Natoire produced an extensive painted cycle adorning the interior of the chapel of the Foundling Hospital in Paris (Hôpital des Enfants-Trouvés), destroyed in the nineteenth century and replaced by the current Hotel Dieu. Natoire worked on the decorations while the chapel was constructed from 1746-50 by the architect Germain Boffrand. A series of fifteen engravings produced in 1756 by Etienne Fessard documents the finished cycle which was devoted to the Adoration of the Magi.
This study of a camel driver is for a figure in a scene devoted to the camels and their porters bearing the gifts of the Magi for the Christ Child. According to Fessard's print it was the last painting on the left lateral wall of the chapel.
Lagoy, Jean-Baptiste de Meryan, marquis de, 1764-1829, former owner.
De Rothschild, Kate, former owner.
Cushman, Allerton, Mrs., donor.
Thacher, John S., donor.
Bovenkamp, Gerrit P. van de, donor.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Nineteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1978-1980. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1981, p. 206-207.
Denison, Cara D. French Drawings, 1550-1825. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984, no. 47.
Denison, Cara D. French Master Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1993, no. 48, repr.
Caviglia-Brunel, Susanna, Charles-Joseph Natoire, 1700-1777, Paris, 2012.