Lot Essay
This composition derives from Boucher's famous painting executed in 1752 in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (inv. 1166). It shows Marie-Louise O'Murphy, one of King Louis XV's Petite maîtresse, in an unusually lascivious pose. Petite maîtresse were not formerly presented at court opposed to the King's Maîtresse-en-titre who were entitled to an apartment at Versailles.