Collection Online as of January 22, 2021

Figures Depicting the Four Seasons

c. 1775

Part of a set. See all set records

maker

Bristol Porcelain Factory

(British, 1770-81)

England, Bristol

Hard-paste porcelain

Part 1: 28.4 x 16.2 x 13.7 cm (11 3/16 x 6 3/8 x 5 3/8 in.); Part 2: 27 x 14.5 x 9.4 cm (10 5/8 x 5 11/16 x 3 11/16 in.); Part 3: 27 x 15.9 x 11.7 cm (10 5/8 x 6 1/4 x 4 5/8 in.); Part 4: 27.2 x 13 x 11.5 cm (10 11/16 x 5 1/8 x 4 1/2 in.)

Bequest of Mary Warden Harkness 1917.611

Location

203A British Painting and Decorative Arts

Fun Fact

Allegorical figures most often decorated a table during the dessert course, providing amusing subjects for conversation.

Description

In this group depicting the four seasons, a young boy in ice skates represents winter; a young lady adorns her hair with flowers in spring; a young man guards his beehive in summer; and a girl gathers fruit in autumn.

Bristol Porcelain Factory

Benjamin Lund produced soft-paste porcelain known as Lund's Bristol Ware between 1749 and 1752. When William Cookworthy (1705-1784) moved his pottery works to Bristol from Plymouth, he began to produce England's first hard-paste porcelain. The works were soon transferred to his factory manager then partner Richard Champion (1743-1791), who directed the factory until its demise around 1782.

Provenance

?-1916

Mary Warden Harkness [1864-1916], New York, NY, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1917-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

"Bequest of Mrs. Charles W. Harkness." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 4 (1917): 63. Mentioned: p. 63 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925.
Only Summer (1917.611.3) and Autumn (1917.611.2) reproduced. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 11 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.
Only Summer (1917.611.3) and Autumn (1917.611.2) reproduced. Reproduced: p. 10 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
Only Autumn (1917.611.2) reproduced. Incorrectly published as Spring (1917.611.1). Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 267 archive.org

Exhibition history

No legacy exhibitions.

Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 9-December 2, 1934).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).