Figure of a Bird Charmer (1764–66): Art, History and Details

Figure of a Bird Charmer (1764–66) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Sèvres Porcelain Factory (French, est. 1756); Etienne-Maurice Falconet (French, 1716–1791).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Designs for 17 young children involved in various activities were issued by sculptor Étienne-Maurice Falconet and regularly reproduced as porcelain figurines. This figure, who stretches out his hand in anticipation that a bird might land, would have been modeled after one of these designs. Decorative figurines like these were often included in elaborate dining services to be placed about a table along with the usual tureens and tableware.

Object facts

• Title: Figure of a Bird Charmer
• Date: 1764–66
• Creator attribution: Sèvres Porcelain Factory (French, est. 1756); Etienne-Maurice Falconet (French, 1716–1791)
• Culture: France, Sèvres
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Unglazed soft-paste porcelain (biscuit)
• Dimensions: Overall: 12.1 x 8.3 x 5.8 cm (4 3/4 x 3 1/4 x 2 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1961.12

A detail from the museum

31 figures modeled after Falconet’s series were included in the dinner service given by French King Louis XV to Christian VII, King of Denmark in 1768.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bourgeois, Émile. Le biscuit de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Goupil, 1909.
• Bourgeois, Émile, and Georges Lechevallier-Chevignard. Le biscuit de Sèvres: recueil des modèles de la manufacture de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: P. Lafitte, 1913.
• Réau, Louis. Etienne-Maurice Falconet. Paris: Demotte, 1922.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.