Charles de la Traverse was, above all, a prolific draftsman, active in Paris, Rome, Naples and Madrid. In Naples he would find the protection of the Marquis of Ossun, French ambassador to the Court of Charles III, whom he accompanied to Madrid around 1760, where he would remain for 20 years.
This drawing and his partner Landscape with washerwomen next to the stream date from the last years of the artist’s stay in Spain. In them we find two clearly differentiated groups, one male and the other female, who carry out various actions next to a river. In this drawing, the soldiers are on the same shore as the lion who timidly begins to flank the bridge. In the second, two girls accompanied by a boy wash clothes next to the stream; an apparently bucolic action that, however, makes sense when paired with the soldiers resting next to the other river.