APART FROM TWO SHEETS, ONE IN A SIMILAR TECHNIQUE TO THE PRESENT SHEET AT PRINCETON AND ANOTHER AT RHEIMS, DRAWINGS BY VOUET FROM THE ITALIAN PERIOD ARE ALMOST UNKNOWN. EQUALLY, ONLY A FEW COMPOSITIONAL STUDIES IN BLACK CHALK AND GREY WASH, FROM THE EARLY PERIOD IN FRANCE AFTER VOUET'S RETURN HAVE SURVIVED. VOUET QUICKLY ABANDONED THIS TYPE OF STUDY IN FAVOUR OF THE MORE FAMILIAR FIGURE STUDIES IN BLACK AND WHITE CHALK. YET, AS JACQUES MUILLIER POINTED OUT, COMPOSITIONAL STUDIES HEIGHTENED WITH WASH WERE VERY MUCH PART OF THE FONTAINBLEAU TRADITION AND THE TECHNIQUE WAS USED BY FRENCH ARTISTS IN ROME DURING VOUET'S LIFETIME. DESPITE THE SCARCITY OF THIS TYPE OF OF DRAWING IN THE ARTIST'S WORK, THE TECHNIQUE WAS PASSED ON THROUGH VOUET'S STUDIO AS LE SUEUR DEVISED HIS COMPOSITIONS IN A SIMILAR WAY, ALSO SQUARING THEM IN RED CHALK.

THERE ARE TWO KNOWN ASSUMPTIONS BY THE ARTIST. ONE IS THE ALTARPIECE OF SAINT-NICOLAS-DE-CHAMPS OF 1629, AN EARLY WORK FOR WHICH THERE IS A RELATED COMPOSITION DRAWING IN THE LOUVRE (B. BREJON DE LAVERGNéE. OP.CIT. NO. 1). THE OTHER DATES FROM 1649, PAINTED FOR THE ORATORY OF QUEEN ANNE OF AUSTRIA. TWO OTHER LOST PAINTINGS OF THE SAME SUBJECT ARE RECORDED: ONE FOR THE ABBEY OF PONT-AUX-DAMES KNOWN THROUGH AN ENGRAVING BY DORIGNY AND ANOTHER MENTIONED BY DEZALLIER D'ARGENVILLE AS BEING IN A JESUIT MONASTERY. THE PRESENT SHEET DOES NOT RELATE TO EITHER OF THE KNOWN COMPOSITIONS AND THE TECHNIQUE WOULD SUGGEST THAT IT RELATES TO AN EARLY COMPOSITION