The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Figure of a Bird Charmer

1764–66
manufacturer

Sèvres Porcelain Factory

(French, est. 1756)
model by

Etienne-Maurice Falconet

(French, 1716–1791)
France, Sèvres
Unglazed soft-paste porcelain (biscuit)
Overall: 12.1 x 8.3 x 5.8 cm (4 3/4 x 3 1/4 x 2 5/16 in.)
The Norweb Collection 1961.12
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

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.

Description

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.
  • Bourgeois, Émile. Le biscuit de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Goupil, 1909. vol. 1, p. 45; vol. 2, p. 11
    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. no. 435, pl. 10
    Réau, Louis. Etienne-Maurice Falconet. Paris: Demotte, 1922. p. 264-65, 513-14
    Les Oeuvres de la manufacture nationale de Sèvres. Vol. 1, La sculpture de 1738 à 1815. Sèvres: Manufacture nationale, 1932. p. 15, no. 453
    "Year in Review." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (November 1961). p. 243, no. 21
    Musée national de céramique. Sèvres, Musée national de céramique: nouvelles acquisitions, 1979-1989. Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1989. p. 171, no. 243
    Horvitz Roth, Linda, and Clare Le Corbeiller. French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum: The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection. Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum, 2000. p. 360-61
    Falconet à Sèvres, 1757-1766, ou, L'art de plaire. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2001. p. 125-30
  • Year in Review (1961). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 1-26, 1961).
  • {{cite web|title=Figure of a Bird Charmer|url=false|author=Sèvres Porcelain Factory, Etienne-Maurice Falconet|year=1764–66|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1961.12