Sèvres Porcelain
H.17 1/2 W.9 1/2 in
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Literature
A Hard-Paste Sèvres Biscuit Porcelain Group of Pygmalion after Falconet on a Soft-Paste Socle circa 1780.
The base gilded by E-H Le Guay.
In this group we seeing the kneeling sculptor Pygmalion amazed as his model Galatea comes to life from the block of marble that he has been carving. A putto kisses her right hand as another putto aims an arrow at Pygmalion.
Falconet exhibited the original marble of this group at the Paris Salon in 1763, where it was admired by Diderot. Production of the Sèvres biscuit porcelain version began shortly after the Salon. In 1775 a group of Prometheus was designed to act as its pair. They were generally sold with bases, but sadly the porcelain factory’s sales registers do not tell us what colour they were.
Ackland Art Museum, North Carolina, USA, 2020