This picture relates to an autograph painting formerly in the collection of Miriam Rothschild (sold Aguttes, Paris, 28 June 2022, lot 19), as well as to a drawing attributed to Murillo in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg (inv. no. 38580). The Hispanic Society's picture deviates from the ex-Rothschild composition in the position of Christ's head, the vegetation in the background, and in the handling of the sky. Upon the exhibition of the present painting in Paris in 1874, the art historian Eugène Henri Le Brun-Dalbanne expressed his doubts as to its authenticity, but reasoned that, since Queen Isabella believed it to be by Murillo, he would call it such as well (loc. cit.). Indeed, the teenage queen thought highly enough of the picture to bestow it in 1846 upon François Guizot, Foreign Minister to the French King Louis Philippe I (1773-1850), as a token of her thanks for his role in arranging her marriage, as well as that of her sister (see du Gué Trapier, 1966, loc. cit.). After Guizot's death in 1874, the painting changed hands in a single-lot sale devoted to 'El Pastorcito', passing to Comte Henri de Greffuhle (1848-1932). Following the picture's acquisition in 1908 by the Hispanic Society, it has been ascribed in their publications variously to 'School of Murillo' and to specific followers including Bernardo Germán de Llórente (Hispanic Society of America, 1925, loc. cit.) and Alonso Miguel de Tobar (du Gué Trapier, 1966, loc. cit.).