CIRCA 1735

It is not clear who this figure is supposed to represent. One view is that since she holds a spear, the scene might depict a lady dressed as the goddess Diana. However, in view of her simple dress, she may be dressed as a shepherdess; this was a popular costume in which ladies were painted at the end of the seventeenth century. Compare the portrait of Mrs. Middleton by Largillière, a pupil of Lely, which is in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Mrs. Middleton is similarly dressed and seated in a similar pose, although she holds a shepherd's crook. For a discussion on the source, and for a teabowl and saucer from the same service from the Mottahedeh Collection, see Howard and Ayers, China for the West, London and New York, 1978, vol.II, no.360. A similar saucer is in the Winterthur Museum, illustrated by A. Palmer, A Winterthur Guide to Chinese Export Porcelain, New York, 1976, fig.47, p.83. Another is illustrated by Hervouët and Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes à Décor Occidental, Paris, 1986, p.121, fig.6.20.