The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Figure of a Mischief Maker

1766
model by

Etienne-Maurice Falconet

(French, 1716–1791)
manufacturer

Sèvres Porcelain Factory

(French, est. 1756)
France, Sèvres
Unglazed soft-paste porcelain (biscuit)
Overall: 11.8 x 6.1 x 7 cm (4 5/8 x 2 3/8 x 2 3/4 in.)
The Norweb Collection 1961.13
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Thirty-one 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

Over a period of three years, designs for 17 young children involved in various activities were issued by sculptor Étienne-Maurice Falconet after which they were regularly reproduced as porcelain figurines. This figure, who pulls back a slingshot, 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 Mischief Maker|url=false|author=Etienne-Maurice Falconet, Sèvres Porcelain Factory|year=1766|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1961.13