View of the Ile Saint Pierre on the Lac de Bienne, Canton de Berne, Switzerland

Olivier de Vérac was the third child of Charles-Olivier, Marquis of Vérac, lieutenant governor general in the Poitou region in France and later an ambassador to The Hague. In 1789, he traveled by foot to Switzerland, where his father had become the ambassador in Solothurn. It is possible that the present lot is a sketch he made on the journey. Vérac is perhaps best known for his role as the traveling correspondent of foreign affairs under the Baron de Breteuil during the period of the King's attempted flight from Paris to the royalist fortress town of Montmédy on the northeastern border of France in 1791.