moss > Les Visiteurs d’ Été: Molière

NEW

GIFTS

FURNITURE

Sign-up for THE DAILY NEW

<< BACK

Click the image above for a larger view.

Alternate and detail:

Les Visiteurs d’ Été:
Molière

designer:
Jean-Antoine Houdon

design year:
1781

manufacturer:
Manufacture National de Sèvres, France

materials:
bisque white porcelain

notes:
This porcelain bust was shown in the recent Moss Gallery exhibition: "Les Visiteurs d'Été (Summer Visitors), culled directly from the archives of France's ancient royal porcelain manufactory, the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres. The rare and historic sculptures shown in the exhibition were conceived by various artists between 1768 and 1936, and produced by Sèvres between 1897 and 2005.

The Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres was founded by Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (better known as the Marquise de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France) in 1740 in Vincennes, moving to the town of Sèvres in 1756. Widely known as a patron of the arts and literature, this unusually powerful, practical, and accomplished eighteenth century woman also planned the building of the Petit Trianon at Versailles, as well as the nation's respected Ecole Militaire.

Early on, the manufactory began to produce work primarily in biscuit, or white unglazed porcelain, both to distinguish itself from the emerging German manufactories producing glazed polychromatic pieces, as well as to more closely imitate the austere white coldness of the popular carved marbles from which many of the works derived.

Since antiquity, the human face in effigy has dominated sculpture. Originally reserved primarily for sovereigns and gods, since the middle of the eighteenth century this art form came slowly to represent other famous characters, depending less on a diminishing royal patronage, and appealing more to the emerging middle class. Signifiers of either a contemporary political affiliation, an artistic patronage, a personal loyalty, or a philosophical allegiance, the exquisite portrait-busts of Sèvres give idealized human form to exceptional human endeavor. Souvenirs of great thought or great deed, these 'visitors' embody a legacy of human accomplishment.

first created in biscuit porcelain ca. 1899; this example created in 2000

dimensions:
height: 18"

price:
$12,500.00