Edmé-François Gersaint (1694–1750) was a Parisian marchand-mercier who was a central figure in the development of the art market and the luxury trades during the era of the Régence and the rule of the rococo style.

[5] He began his career as a merchant in 1718, purchasing the stock-in-trade and inheriting the clientele of a picture dealer on the Petit Pont, Antoine Dieu Au Grand Monarque, with a modest capital.

In around 1738, he changed the name of his shop from Au Grand Monarque to A la Pagode and began specialising in Chinese porcelain and Asian lacquers, as well as the French imitation known as venis Martin.

[8] Two inventories of Gersain's stock, taken in 1725 and 1750, revealed to his biographer, Guillaume Glorieux, the extent to which Gersaint's concerns had broadened from its inception, to concentrate as much on furniture (some 45% of the inventory valuation), exotic novelties, oriental lacquer and porcelain, tea and coffee equipages, shells from tropical seas, as on the presentation of paintings, cleaned and stylishly framed, and mirrors, during decades when Paris regarded itself as the center of civilization.

[11] Another Parisian art dealer, François-Charles Joullain, built on his work by compiling the first index that documented provenance and the prices paintings had fetched at auctions.

[13] Gersaint's Catalogue raisonné de toutes les piėces qui forment l'oeuvre de Rembrandt (published posthumously, Paris, 1751), was the first catalogue raisonné of a single artist's graphic work, addressing at length the connoisseurship issues in distinguishing Rembrandt's work from that of his pupils in a chapter on doubtful attributions.

Following its removal, the painting languished for a time in a store-room, was eventually sold to Frederick the Great of Prussia and is now on display in Berlin.

[15] The painting exaggerates the size of Gersaint's cramped boutique, which in reality was hardly more than a permanent booth with a little backshop, on the medieval Pont Notre-Dame, in the heart of Paris.