Rare Chelsea Painted Figure of a Chinese Man, Circa 1750-1752
A Very Rare Chelsea Painted Figure of a Chinese Man stands upright on a square grassy mound, his hands held together at his chest hidden within the wide sleeves of his full-length robe, tied at the waist with a yellow and pink sash with the red slipper of his right foot peeking out. The robe is decorated with pink, blue, and yellow leaved flowers and a puce speckled cuff and collar. He looks to the right, smiling with brows alert and head notched, covered with a pointed wide brim yellow hat.
Further Details: The Chelsea manufactory competed with continental manufactories, particularly Meissen where this figure is taken from a model produced by the Meissen modeller Peter Reinicke (1715-1768) in 1743 for the Hofkonditorei of Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700 – 1763).
Provenance
Private American CollectionLiterature
See a similar example in a Private Collection illustrated in Anton Gabszewicz, ‘‘A Mind to Copy’: Inspired by Meissen’, Art Antiques London (2011), 20-28, fig. 9.
See a similar standing figure of a Chinese man in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (30.275)
For further discussion on Meissen’s impact on English manufactories, see Peter Bradshaw, ‘The Great Contribution made by Meissen’, 18th Century English Porcelain Figures 1745-1795 (1981), 25-38.