Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "136555",
    "label": "Figure of a Bird Charmer",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}

{
    "id": "136555",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "Figure of a Bird Charmer",
    "description": "Designs for 17 young children involved in various activities were issued by sculptor Étienne-Maurice Falconet and regularly reproduced as porcelain figurines. This figure, who stretches out his hand in anticipation that a bird might land, 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.",
    "date": "1764–66",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1961.12",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q80030566"
    ],
    "creators": [
        11883,
        304711
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Ceramic"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1961.12/1961.12_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1961.12/1961.12_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1961.12/1961.12_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 12.1 x 8.3 x 5.8 cm (4 3/4 x 3 1/4 x 2 5/16 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "France, Sèvres"
    ],
    "accession": "1961.12"
}

{
    "tec": "Unglazed soft-paste porcelain (biscuit)",
    "tombstone": "Figure of a Bird Charmer, 1764–66. Manufactured by Sèvres Porcelain Factory (French, est. 1756), Etienne-Maurice Falconet (French, 1716–1791). Unglazed soft-paste porcelain (biscuit); overall: 12.1 x 8.3 x 5.8 cm (4 3/4 x 3 1/4 x 2 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection, 1961.12",
    "collection": "Decorative Arts",
    "relatedWorks": [
        {
            "id": 136566,
            "description": "Figure of a Mischief Maker, 1766. Etienne-Maurice Falconet (French, 1716–1791), Sèvres Porcelain Factory (French, est. 1756). 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 Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection, 1961.13",
            "relationship": "related series"
        }
    ],
    "didYouKnow": "31 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.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "Bourgeois, Émile. <em>Le biscuit de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle</em>. Paris: Goupil, 1909.",
            "page_number": "vol. 1, p. 45; vol. 2, p. 11"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Bourgeois, Émile, and Georges Lechevallier-Chevignard.<em> Le biscuit de Sèvres: recueil des modèles de la manufacture de Sèvres au XVIIIe siècle</em>. Paris: P. Lafitte, 1913.",
            "page_number": "no. 435, pl. 10"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Réau, Louis. <em>Etienne-Maurice Falconet</em>. Paris: Demotte, 1922.",
            "page_number": "p. 264-65, 513-14"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Les Oeuvres de la manufacture nationale de Sèvres</em>. Vol. 1, <em>La sculpture de 1738 à 1815</em>. Sèvres: Manufacture nationale, 1932.",
            "page_number": "p. 15, no. 453"
        },
        {
            "citation": "\"Year in Review.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> (November 1961).",
            "page_number": "p. 243, no. 21"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Musée national de céramique. <em>Sèvres, Musée national de céramique: nouvelles acquisitions, 1979-1989</em>. Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1989.",
            "page_number": "p. 171, no. 243"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Horvitz Roth, Linda, and Clare Le Corbeiller. <em>French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum: The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection</em>. Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum, 2000.",
            "page_number": "p. 360-61"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Falconet à Sèvres, 1757-1766, ou, L'art de plaire</em>. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2001.",
            "page_number": "p. 125-30"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1961.12",
    "creditline": "The Norweb Collection",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 06:58:21.220000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1961.12/1961.12_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 136555,
    "dept": "Decorative Art and Design",
    "coll": "Decorative Arts",
    "med": "Unglazed soft-paste porcelain (biscuit)",
    "creatorTags": [
        "male",
        "gender unknown"
    ],
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1961.12/1961.12_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "67cc116cbb57151a"
}