The present bronze is among the finest versions of this model, imbued with tenderness and sensitivity. An example is held in the Wallace Collection, London. Its pendant is A Mother Teaching Her Child to Walk. The composition appears to be inspired by a larger bronze statuette, Venus Removing a Thorn from Her Foot or The Thorn Puller, by Ponce Jacquiot, with whom Barthélemy Prieur collaborated. Another, lesser-quality version is preserved in the Louvre , bequeathed by Jean-Léonce Leroux in 1897. A very similar group, now in a private collection, was formerly in the Boissel de Monville collection, dispersed in 1861. The composition is first mentioned in the posthumous inventory of André Le Nôtre, drawn up in 1700, which lists numerous small genre bronzes and records this model twice.

Its dimensions, together with certain features notably the very small head, the hairstyle, the impassive facial expression, and the curvilinear scheme of the composition are characteristic of Barthélemy Prieur’s style. The mother’s face may also be compared to the allegorical figures in one of Prieur’s most celebrated works, the Monument to the Heart of the Constable Anne de Montmorency, preserved in the Louvre.