Images(2)

Figure of a Seated Boy

Artist Etienne-Maurice Falconet French, 1716 - 1791

Maker Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory French, 1756- present

Date1754- 1766

MediumUnglazed soft-paste porcelain (also called biscuit porcelain, the French term for soft-paste is pâte tendre)

DimensionsOverall: 7 3/4 x 6 7/8 x 3 1/2 in. (19.7 x 17.5 x 8.9 cm)

ClassificationsCeramics

Credit LineBequest of Charlotte Pruyn Hyde

Object number1971.285

On View

On view

Collections

Decorative Arts

SignedInscribed before firing with a capital letter block-printed "F" on the back of the bench, lower left.

DescriptionFigure of a young boy seated on a backless bench. He looks upwards as if towards someone nearby. His right arm reaches out and in that hand he appears to be proffering a piece of bread. He wears clogs and a tricorner hat. The figure was almost certainly made as one of a pair with the mate probably a young female figure to whom the item in the boy's hand is extended. Possibly one of the groups from the "Enfants Falconet."

Cast and in multiple parts and assembled. Sèvres soft-paste porcelain figures differ widely from most of this period (Meissen, Chelsea, Bow etc), in being left in the biscuit. Relying on the extraordinary detail of modeling and having (and needing) no colored or colorless glaze, and resembling marble in its slightly porous, matte white color.
Exhibition History"French Objects", Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, Dec.- Jan. 1978.

"Splendid Innovations: The World of French Design, 1650-1785," The Hyde Collection, May 8 - Sept. 7, 1986.

"The Painterly and the Picturesque: Trends in Eighteenth Century European Art," The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY, Hoopes Gallery, Sept. 23- Dec. 30, 2001.ProvenanceGaston Arnoux, Paris, France, from whom Mr. Hyde purchased in 1913; Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hyde, Glens Falls, NY, 1913; by bequest to the Hyde Collection, 1952.