Three versions of La Gimblette can be traced back to the 18th century with the help of auction catalogues of that time.

In the Munich version, the dog also takes on the task of covering parts of the girl's body.

This version was sold at auction at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris in 1880 in the sale of the Walferdin collection, lot 62, for FRF1,010.

This version was sold at auction at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris in 1880 in the sale of the Walferdin collection, lot 61, for FRF7,000.

After the death of M. Georges Mühlbacher in 1906, the painting was sold at auction in Paris between 13 May and 15 May 1907, by the Galerie Georges Petit, as part of the sale of the Mühlbacher collection, lot 23, offered as painted by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, for FRF31,500.

It is therefore no surprise that the composition was imitated by many artists, including the engravers Augustin-Claude-Simon Legrand (1765–1815) and Niclas Lafrensen.

Many versions of La Gimblette were sold in the 19th and 20th centuries, painted by different artists.

Today it is very difficult to tell them apart as the old descriptions in the sales catalogues were not always accurate and the dimensions were often missing.

After the baron's death in 1791, his heirs sold the entire contents of the Hôtel de Besenval at auction on 10 August 1795.

[15][3] It is possible that the Baron de Besenval bought La Gimblette from Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun.

However, the baron could also have bought the painting directly from Jean-Honoré Fragonard, whom he knew personally.

[3][17] The engraving of the Besenval version by Charles Bertony, which was announced in the issue of 19 April 1783 of the Journal de Paris and of which a limited edition is dedicated to the Baron de Besenval, is also known by the title La Caroline, as reported in the issue of 10 August 1875 of the L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux.

It can therefore be assumed that even the audience of the Ancien Régime, accustomed to a certain degree of frivolity, viewed this engraving as a scandal.

Due to the shape of the pastry and the way it is offered in the context of the composition of the painting, it could also be understood as an ambiguous allusion.

[2][4][8][18] The composition and the name of the painting must be understood in the spirit of the last decades of the Ancien Régime.

Several terracotta artworks by Claude Michel were more or less directly inspired by works by Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

It is therefore quite possible that Claude Michel was also inspired by the works of Fragonard, especially by the painting La Gimblette, when he created the large reliefs with erotic scenes for the baron's nymphaeum, such as the relief titled Pan pursuing Syrinx under the gaze of Cupid, which is now part of the collections of the Louvre.