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François Boucher made the drawing as a print design for a series depicting Parisian tradespeople, titled the <em>Cris de Paris</em> (Criers of Paris), which consisted of 12 plates. Subjects in the series included this vendor of hot pastries and cheese puffs as well as a variety of other vendors such as a knife grinder, broom seller, chimney sweep, and vegetable seller. Boucher was known primarily for images epitomizing the elegant court life of France—nudes, decorative compositions, and pastorals—rather than so-called “low life” subjects such as street vendors. Boucher’s series struck a chord with the growing middle-class print-buying public in France, with its designs migrating to a variety of decorative arts and porcelain figurines.