Pair of Biscuits of porcelain of Vincennes – Sèvres, 18th century

Pair of figures in biscuit of soft porcelain of Vincennes-Sèvres representing “The sitting shepherdess” and “The carrier of sheep,”sculpted by Jean-Baptiste fernex, model after F. Boucher for the dairy of Mrs Pompadour in the castle of Crécy.
Mark F in hollow for Falconet* on the rock and underneath.
Created in 1754 until 1766. 18th century.
H. 21,5 and 22 cm or 8,5 in.
Cooking cracks and part of jacket for the man, flowers in the left hand of the woman, restored ; crack reattached to the waist.
*Etienne-Maurice Falconet, sculptor since 1755 and director of the sculpture workshop of the Sèvres factory from July 1757 to September 1766.
These figures represent Madame Favart and the actor Rochard de Bouillac in Charles-Simon Favart's Les Amours de Bastien et Bastienne, a play inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Le devin du village (1752) and performed at the Italian theater from 1753. It was also an opera by Mozart created in 1768.

Cf. Bourgeois (1909), tome I pp. 25-29 et n°111 pl.01 et n°510 pl. 01 (1913).
Svend Eriksen et Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Porcelaine de Sèvres, (1987), n° 105, pp. 293-294.