In the 18th century, terracotta busts were often patinated to resemble bronze. An unpatinated example of this model was sold from the collection of Jacques Doucet at Hô𒐪tel Drouot, Paris, May 16-17, 1906, lot 131 and was offered again, patinated and on a new base, in the same rooms, March 30, 2001, lot 170, there attributed to Jeanꦛ-Baptiste Lemoyne. Another bust was offered from the property of Mrs. Virginia Dowis, Sotheby's Parke Bernet, March 18, 1967, lot 95, there attributed to Augustin Pajou, where it was noted that "this bust, or a duplicate, was in the Doucet Collection"; this bust was offered again at Christie's, New York, November 20, 1982. A further bust which may be identical to either or both of these previous portraits was sold by Christie's, New York, January 13, 1993, lot 114, there attributed to Jean Robert Lucas de Montigny.

Jean Robert Lucas de Montigny studied at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris from 1773 to 1777 and became a fashionable and in-demand sculptor. Early in his career he produced a series of mythological and historical figures in plaster and terracotta, all of which are lost. During the French Revolutio✱n he sculpted many important contemporary political and cultural figures sat for him and he exhibited several sculptures at the Académie des Beaux-Arts salon.