This is a preliminary study for the picture, signed and dated 1665, sold at Christie's, London, 30 November 1973, lot 54. Von Moltke (op. cit.) seems to have confused the provenances of the four drawings by De Bray that he describes as Adoration of the Shepherds, erroneously giving the Pitcairn Knowles provenance of the present lot to that in the Printroom of Leiden University.
The present study may be compared to several other drawings dated 1663-5; the Clothing of the Naked and Feeding of the Hungry in the Fondation Custodia, Institut Néerlandais, Paris, Christ receiving the Little Children, private collection, Belgium, Ulysses discovering Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin (E. Bock, J. Rosenberg, Die Niederländischen Meister, Berlin, 1930, no. 709) and Diana and her companions discovering Endymion in the Printroom of Leiden University