Carle VAN LOO (Nice 1705 - Paris 1765) Bust of a young Moorish maid Black stone and red chalk on buff paper. Signed lower left. (Drawing doubled, small stains, some spotting). 35 x 28,7 cm Provenance : - Former Jean Masson collection, his stamp at lower right (L.1494a). - Masson sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 20, 1924, n° 136, sold to Carles Dreyfus. - Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, July 3, 1995, lot n° 149. Bibliography: Marie-Catherine Sahut, Carle Vanloo, premier peintre du roi, exhibition catalog, 1977, Nice-Clermont-Ferrand Nancy, no. 362, p. 123, reproduced. Our drawing is a preparatory study for the maid in Van Loo's painting Sultane prenant le café, which depicts Madame de Pompadour dressed in Turkish fashion and drinking coffee in an oriental interior. The painting is currently in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The engraving of the painting by J. F. Beauvarlet is known.