Louis XV, King of France, Château de Fontainebleau, France, until around 1793
Julliard Family, New York, by descent to
Marcia MacDonald, San Francisco; sold through Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco in the 1960's where acquired by a Private collector
Christie's New York, Important Old Master Paintings (Property of a Private Collector), 16 January 1992, Lot 126
(a pair of paintings)

ENGERAND F., 'Inventaire des Tableaux commandés et achetés par la Direction des Bâtiments du Roi (1709 -1792), 1901, p. XLVII
BOYER F., 'Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre de Charles Natoire, Peintre du Roi (1700 - 1777), Archives de l'Art Français, nouvelle période, XXI, 1946, nos. 294 and 295
BOTTINEAU Y., 'L'Art d'Ange-Jacques Gabriel à Fontainebleau', Paris, 1962, p. 37, note 48, 38 and 55
JULIA I., DUCLAUX L., ROSENBERG P., et al., catalogue of the exhibition 'Charles-Joseph Natoire, peintures, dessins, estampes et tapisseries des collections publiques françaises', Troyes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nîmes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rome, Villa Medici, 1977, p. 42
CUZIN J. P., 'Le déjeuner de chasse de Jean-François de Troy (1679 - 1752) peint pour Fontainebleau', Revue du Louvre, no. 1, March 1991, p. 46 and note 11
MARANDEL J. P., 'Quelques oeuvres de Natoire pour les appartements de Louis XV à Fontainebleau récemment retrouvées', Antologia di Belle Arti, no. 39, 1991 (to be published in 1992)
'Christie's Review of the Season 1992', p. 23, illustrated in colour
MARANDEL J.P., 'Natoire aux appartements de Louis XV à Fontainebleau', 'Antologia di Belle Arti', no. 39, 1992, pp. 129, note 5, illustrated p. 130
RAND R. 'Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in eighteenth-Century France', Princeton 1997, under cat.no. 15, p. 121, n.2
JOULIE F. 'Autour d'un tableau retrouvé pour les petits appartements de Louis XV au château de Fontainebleau, les premières pastorales de François Boucher', Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de l'Art Français, 2007, pp. 180-181
CAVIGLIA-BRUNEL S., 'Charles-Joseph Natoire, 1700-1777', Paris 2012, p. 272, n° P.81 as 'Chasseurs au repos', 1737, present location unknown

The present pair of paintings was commissioned in 1737 by M. Orry, the 'directeur des Bâtiments du Roi' for the' petits appartements' of Louis XV at the Château de Fontainebleau. While these were painted for the large dining room, the commission consisted of four other paintings; a pair of 'pastorales' for the adjoining small dining room and a port scene and 'Colin-Maillard' for the 'cabinet du Roi'. All six pictures were lost, presumably dispersed following the Revolution, until the recent discovery of the present pair. In Engerand's inventory of works commissioned in the 18th Century by the Director of the King's buildings, loc.cit., the present painting is described as follows: 'des chasseurs qui se reposent, un d'eux se met en joue pour tirer, ayant de hauteur 3 pieds 8 pouces sur 3pieds; à oreilles par en bas'. F. Boyer, loc. cit., notes that the paintings were last mentioned in the minutes of a 18 September, 1793 meeting of the 'Commission des Monuments' (not found), a committee entrusted with the dispersal of artworks from Royal buildings. It is probably around this time that the paintings left Fontainebleau. Boyer also states erroneously that all six paintings were exhibited at the Salon of 1737. The dimensions of the works, as noted by Enger and and subsequently Boyer (1.18 x 0.97 cm.) differ slightly from that of the present pair. It is not all unusual, though, that the paintings should have lost several centimeters, having been removed from a decorative framing which may have included 'boiseries' at the edges. J.P. Marandel has noted the existence of a red and white chalk drawing for the figure of the kneeling boy pulling something from a sack, at the left of 'The resting Hunter', in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen (Hédou Bequest,L. 1253; see 'French Master Drawings from the Rouen Museum, from Caron to Delacroix', catalogue by P. Rosenberg and F. Bergot, organized and circulated by the International Exhibitions Foundation, 1981-82, no. 81,pl. 61). The above painting will be included in J.P. Marendel's 'catalogue raisonné' on Natoire now in preparation.