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Lot Essay
THE MODEL
This bust is after the Sèvres figures probably modeled by Jean-Jacques Bachelier (1724-1805). Bachelier, who began working at Sèvres in 1748, was the Art Director from 1751-1793, overseeing painting at the manufactory, as well as modeling in two separate eras, from 1753-1757 and again from 1766-1774 after Falconet's departure to Russia. Between 1769 and 1780, Sèvres produced a series of small statuettes formed as term figures of classical figures, as well as sculptural series such as the Four Seasons. All of these are designed with bases nearly identical to the present bust (see E. Bourgeois and G. Lechevalier-Chevignard, Le Biscuit de Sèvres: recueil des modèles de la manufacture de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle, plates 17 and 18). An identical model of Louis XVI, from the Estate of Mrs. Charles Engelhard, with the same base of oak leaves and porphyry plinth, but without the inscription of the present model, was sold, together with the matching bust of Marie Antoinette, Christie's, New York, 18 March, 2005, lot 296. A bust with identical inscription to the base, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Seligmann, was sold Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, 4 / 5 June 1935, lot 119.
THE PFLUEGER COLLECTION
Formed over the course of forty years by the discerning eyes of Edward M. and Kathleen "Kiyi" Powers Pflueger, The Pflueger Collection comprised over 700 pieces of the finest German and French porcelain and faience of the late seventeenth-eighteenth centuries. Edward began collecting European ceramics as a young man in 1930s Germany, before immigrating to the United States where in 1943, he married Kiyi, one of five daughters from a socially prominent New Jersey family. Inspired by the porcelain collection formed by Otto and Magdalena Blohm of Hamburg, they together assembled one of the most important collections of European ceramics in America, displayed in their homes among fine paintings, sculpture, furniture and other decorative arts of the same periods. Upon the death of Edward in 1997, the collection was bequeathed to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston but was not to leave home until the death of its co-collector, Kiyi. With her passing in 2006, the core of the collection has now moved on to the MFA, with a collection of ceramics, furniture and decorative arts retained privately by Kiyi after Edward's death, including the present figure, soldat Christie’s, New York in 2006.
This bust is after the Sèvres figures probably modeled by Jean-Jacques Bachelier (1724-1805). Bachelier, who began working at Sèvres in 1748, was the Art Director from 1751-1793, overseeing painting at the manufactory, as well as modeling in two separate eras, from 1753-1757 and again from 1766-1774 after Falconet's departure to Russia. Between 1769 and 1780, Sèvres produced a series of small statuettes formed as term figures of classical figures, as well as sculptural series such as the Four Seasons. All of these are designed with bases nearly identical to the present bust (see E. Bourgeois and G. Lechevalier-Chevignard, Le Biscuit de Sèvres: recueil des modèles de la manufacture de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle, plates 17 and 18). An identical model of Louis XVI, from the Estate of Mrs. Charles Engelhard, with the same base of oak leaves and porphyry plinth, but without the inscription of the present model, was sold, together with the matching bust of Marie Antoinette, Christie's, New York, 18 March, 2005, lot 296. A bust with identical inscription to the base, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Seligmann, was sold Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, 4 / 5 June 1935, lot 119.
THE PFLUEGER COLLECTION
Formed over the course of forty years by the discerning eyes of Edward M. and Kathleen "Kiyi" Powers Pflueger, The Pflueger Collection comprised over 700 pieces of the finest German and French porcelain and faience of the late seventeenth-eighteenth centuries. Edward began collecting European ceramics as a young man in 1930s Germany, before immigrating to the United States where in 1943, he married Kiyi, one of five daughters from a socially prominent New Jersey family. Inspired by the porcelain collection formed by Otto and Magdalena Blohm of Hamburg, they together assembled one of the most important collections of European ceramics in America, displayed in their homes among fine paintings, sculpture, furniture and other decorative arts of the same periods. Upon the death of Edward in 1997, the collection was bequeathed to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston but was not to leave home until the death of its co-collector, Kiyi. With her passing in 2006, the core of the collection has now moved on to the MFA, with a collection of ceramics, furniture and decorative arts retained privately by Kiyi after Edward's death, including the present figure, soldat Christie’s, New York in 2006.