Cleveland Museum of Art

Figure Pair of the Dancer (La Danseuse) and the Bagpiper (Le Joueur de Musette)

François Boucher

Date

1748–52

Medium

unglazed soft-paste porcelain (biscuit porcelain)

Culture

France, Vincennes

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In the mid-18th century, the designs of reputed painter François Boucher were regularly reproduced at the Vincennes factory as figures or paintings on porcelain. A series of eight children designed by Boucher were referred to in factory records as the Enfants de Boucher (children of Boucher) and regularly reproduced. The depictions of these barefoot children in peasant attire engaged in pastoral pursuits represent the virtuous simplicity the 18th-century French elite ascribed to representations of rural life. Unglazed porcelain figures were a long-lasting alternative to the decorative sugar sculptures displayed alongside intricately designed 18th-century French dinner services.

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