A DATED SÈVRES BISCUIT GROUP LE SILÈNE

Details

A DATED SÈVRES BISCUIT GROUP LE SILÈNE
INCISED FOUNTAIN, LT MONOGRAM FOR LETOURNEUR AND DATED 1759

Modelled as a nymph embracing Silenus and two other nymphs asleep with playing children with a cushion and grapes and an overturned ewer (the neck of one nymph restored, chips to feet and basket)--8½in. (21.5cm.) high

Provenance

Wilfred Sainsbury,sale, Sotheby's London, May 5, 1970, lot 39

Lot Essay

Modelled by Falconet in 1759. According to Bourgeois, Le Biscuits de Sèvres, pp. 8, the subject is taken from an engraving by Falconet fils after a drawing by Boucher and the model in the Musée de Sèvres is illustrated in pl. 16.

Unusually for Sèvres biscuit, this group is conceived entirely in the round and translates Boucher's two-dimensional conception most successfully into three dimensions.