Beggar Woman with Children: C.14-1954

Titles

Beggar Woman with Children

Maker(s)

Factory: Meissen Porcelain Factory
Modeller: Kändler, Johann Joachim

Entities

• Figure group

Categories

• Hard-paste porcelain

Description

Hard-paste porcelain painted in blue, turquoise, green, bright yellow, flesh pink, red, purple, brown, and black enamels. The woman stands on a long flat white base encrusted with coloured foliage and flowers. She carries a brown cradle decorated with yellow tufts, which appears to be unsupported. In the cradle lies an infant holding to its mouth, with both hands, one corner of the white cloth in which it is wrapped, and which is sparsely decorated with red stars. At her right side stands a child whose left hand she holds, her own left hand being stretched over the cradle. In his right hand the child holds a brown stick.
She wears a white lace cap, almost concealed by a black kerchief hanging down her back and knotted under her chin, a white chemise, a long yellow low-cut dress terminating in brown and white fur trimming, white stockings, and black shoes with red bows. Round her waist she wears a drab apron caught up under the cradle. The child is bare-headed, and wears a long blue coat open at the neck and trimmed with fur at the bottom, over a long maroon robe similarly trimmed, over green trousers and brown shoes. A muff of fur is slung round his waist by a black strap.

Notes

History note: Bought on 1 March 1934 from Frau Elfriede Langeloh, Cologne, for £75 by Cecil, 2nd Baron Fisher; Lord and Lady Fisher of Kilverstone.

Legal notes

Given by Lord and Lady Fisher through the National Art Collections Fund

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1954-01-14) by Fisher, Lord and Lady

Dating

18th Century, Mid
Friedrich August III
Circa 1742 - 1750

Note

This group was based on 'Croisséz tendres enfans, fardeau de vôtre mère', painted and then etched by Jacques Dumont le Romain (1704-81),and finished in an engraving of 1739 by Jean Daullé (1703-63). The model is mentioned in Kaendler's Work Report in February 1744, and in his undated Taxa for 1740-44 as the 71st entry (unnumbered). The group was paired with the old man bagpiper (C.12-1954). Model no. 525 in the Meissen Directory of Models, 1730-1831.