The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

Figure of Summer from the Four Seasons

c. 1775
maker

Bristol Porcelain Factory

(British, 1770–81)
England, Bristol
hard-paste porcelain
Overall: 27 x 15.9 x 11.7 cm (10 5/8 x 6 1/4 x 4 5/8 in.)
Bequest of Mary Warden Harkness 1917.611.3
Location: 203A British Painting and Decorative Arts

Did You Know?

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

Description

The modern notion of childhood as a time of innocence and simplicity emerged during the second half of the eighteenth century. This understanding of adolescence led to numerous depictions of children as personifications of the four seasons. Here summer is portrayed as a young boy holding a sheaf of wheat as he leans against the beehive next to him. Both grain and honey have been associated with summer harvests and their accompanying festivals since antiquity.
  • ?-1916
    Mary Warden Harkness [1864-1916], New York, NY, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1917-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 11 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 10 archive.org
    "European Porcelains Bequeathed by Mary Warden Harkness." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 15, no. 2 part II (February 1928): 57-59 Reproduced: p. 58 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned: cat. 267 archive.org
  • British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
    No legacy exhibitions.
    Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 9-December 2, 1934).
  • {{cite web|title=Figure of Summer from the Four Seasons|url=false|author=Bristol Porcelain Factory|year=c. 1775|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1917.611.3