Louis XV thumbnail 1
Louis XV thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 137, The Curtain Foundation Gallery

Louis XV

Bust
ca. 1747-1760 (made)
Artist/Maker
Rue De Charenton Pottery Factory (manufacturer)
Pont-Aux-Choux (manufacturer)
Place of origin
France (made)
Paris (made)

Portrait bust facing right, on separate socle formed as a lion couchant and pedestal with rococo cartouche


Object details

Categories
Access_to_Images 2003
Ceramics
Creamware & Pearlware
Portraits
Royalty
SCRAN
Object type
Bust
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Bust
  • Pedestal
TitleLouis XV (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Creamware (faïence fine)
Earthenware
Brief description
Creamware bust of Louis XV with a pedestal, probably Pont-aux-Choux pottery factory, about 1747-1760
Physical description
Portrait bust facing right, on separate socle formed as a lion couchant and pedestal with rococo cartouche
Gallery label
Gallery 128 Decant 2003 After a bronze dated 1737 and signed by Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne.(07/06/2004)
Credit line
Bequeathed by Stuart G. Davis
Object history
From the Leroux sale, Paris, 1896; Goldsmidt sale, Paris, 1898; Goldsmidt sale, Christie's, London, 1925
Acquisition type: Bequest
Production
Acquired as Lunéville, ca. 1770, after a model by Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne; re-dated ca. 1755. According to a note in the register in Charles Truman's hand: 'Also a model by Guibal & Cyffle, 1751, the plaquette [?maquette] of which is in the Musée Lorraine, Nancy, (Jacques Chabrette's factory)'. Examined by Christian Maire November 2004, who considered it Pont-aux-Choux and added that the Luneville versions have a differently modelled head. For another very similar bust, but with slightly different tooling, see C.678&A-1909.
Subjects depicted
Lion
Cartouche
Louis XV (King of France)
Bibliographic references
  • For a pair of busts of Louis XV and Marie Leczinska, attributed to Lunéville and dated c. 1755, which were acquired by the Getty Museum in 1986, see J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, no 15, 1987, p. 212, item 103.
  • For a discussion of the several ceramic busts after Lemoyne, including one in Chantilly porcelain dated 1745, and a bronze original dated 1737, see G. Le Duc, Porcelaine tendre de Chantilly, 1996, pp. 184-203. According to Le Duc, there is no evidence for the traditional attribution of these creamware busts to Lunéville, and she cites an inventory of 1747 of the Rue de Charenton factory that includes 'un buste du Roi' and busts of the king and queen.
  • For another pair attributed to Lunéville see Dorothée Guillemé Brulon, La Faïence fine francaise, 1750-1867, Paris, 1995, p. 70.
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
CIRC.92&A-1951

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Record createdJune 7, 2004
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O100575/louis-xv-bust-rue-de-charenton/
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