Oil on wood panel signed upper left part “JJG”.  Grandville married his cousin Henriette Fischer in July 1833 and undoubtedly the painting stages the artist seated beside Henriette with their first son, Ferdinand, born in 1834. It sounds logical to find here some evocations of a children's tale he illustrated in 1837 at the same period. It's a very rare if not unique scene because Ferdinand lived only one more year until 1838. His second son died at 3 years old, his third child Georges at the age of 4 in 1847 and their mother in 1842. Granville remarried in 1843 to Céline Lhuillier and Armand, their only child was the only surviving child. The artist thus lost 3 children and a wife between 1833 & 1847, between the ages of 30 to 44. Ferdinand (1834-38), Henri (1838-41), Georges (1842-47) Henriette (1810-42) dead, Grandville was psychologically broken. He had a madness attack in 1847, dying in hospital two months later.