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This red chalk drawing, heightened with white, is a study of hands and is accompanied by very good provenance. It bears the collection stamp of a small eye, used by Nathaniel Hone (1718–1784) (Lugt 2793). Hone’s collection is well known for its high quality (cf. Lugt), which supports the attribution and provides a terminus ante quem for the drawing’s execution .The sheet was sold by the well-known Brussels auction house of Jean-Paul Meulemeester, a specialist in Old Master paintings and drawings, between 1960 and 1980, where it was catalogued as Étude de mains, école française XVIIIᵉ siècle. The quality of execution, however, is particularly high and can be closely compared with hand studies by François Boucher (1703–1770).