Psyche
Alternate TitleLa Nymphe Falconet
Modeler
Etienne-Maurice Falconet
(French, 1716 - 1791)
Manufacturer
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
(French, 1756 - present)
Date1780-1790
MediumUnglazed soft-paste porcelain (biscuit) with enamel and gilding
DimensionsOverall: 9 1/2 × 6 3/8 inches (24.13 × 16.19 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number33-1575/2 A,B
MarkingsFaintly in grey on the base of the figure "B", "12", and possibly "3"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionLittle girl, seated on rock. She holds bow in hand. Mounted on blue and white Sevres base.Exhibition HistoryLuxury and Passion: Inventing French Porcelain, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, August 13 2022–August 12 2024, no cat.
Falconet gained success with full-size sculptures of Cupid, mischievous god of love, and Cupid’s human wife, Psyche. Madame de Pompadour encouraged Falconet to adapt them into equally popular small-scale biscuit statues.
With Symons, by October 13, 1931 [1];
Purchased from Symons by French and Company, New York, stock no. 17372B, October 13, 1931- December 15, 1933 [2];
Purchased from French and Company by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.
NOTES:
[1] This is probably Henry Symons and Co., a London dealer and collector from whom French and Company bought other objects.
[2] Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, French and Company Stock Sheets, box 17, folder 2.
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