The Dancing Lesson

Physical description

Group, in soft-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded, consisting of a youth playing a hurdy-gurdy, while a girl is teaching a dog, dressed as Harlequin, to dance on a pedestal, and the youth is dressed in a wide black hat, pink-sleeved flowered and gilt coat and breeches, and the girl, who is half sitting on the branch of a flowering tree, wears plumes in her hair, a yellow cloak, and pink-lined greenish-blue dress caught up to show a flowered petticoat, and the group is supported on a rococo scrolled base picked out in gold and with applied flowers and foliage.

Place of Origin

Derby, England (made)

Date

1765-1770 (made)

Artist/maker

William Duesbury & Co. (manufacturer)

Materials and Techniques

Soft-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded

Dimensions

Height: 27.9 cm

Object history note

The group is adapted from a composition by Carle Vanloo.

Descriptive line

Group of The Dance Lesson, in soft-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded, consisting of a youth playing a hurdy-gurdy, while a girl is teaching a dog, dressed as Harlequin, to dance on a pedestal, made by William Duesbury & Co., Derby, 1765-1770.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Pietsch, Ulrich and Witting, Theresa, eds. Fascination of fragility: masterpieces of European porcelain. Leipzig: Seemann Henschel; Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2010. 367 p., ill. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Ephraim-Palais, Berlin, 9 May - 29 August 2010. ISBN: 9783865022479

Exhibition History

Fascination of Fragility: Masterpieces of European Porcelain (Ephraim-Palais, Berlin 09/05/2010-29/08/2010)

Production Note

Bradshaw - p98 pl 77. Adapted from a composition by Carle Vanloo.

Materials

Soft-paste porcelain

Techniques

Painted; Gilded

Subjects depicted

Flowers; Man; Woman; Dog; Dancing; Harlequin; Hurdy-gurdies

Categories

Porcelain; Ceramics

Collection code

CER