Oval, bulbous vase on four feet with a stepped, flared neck. The front is bowed with flat pilasters rising from scroll feet; the back is concave, with simple feet. Acanthus leaves rise up the sides, forming handles below the rim. Check scenes, decoration, and gilding.
Credit
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. The Arabella D. Huntington Memorial Art Collection.
The cuvette à fleurs Courteille was produced at Sèvres in three sizes, this example being of the third and smallest size. The name refers to Jacques Dominique de Barberi de Courteille (1696-1767), Louis XV's minister in charge of the manufactory. The first example made in the largest size was presented to him in December 1753. The name indicates that vases of this model were for holding flowers-either porcelain flowers or cut flowers. The shape is roughly oval, with bowed, slightly bulbous front and sides and a flat, slightly concave back. It rests on four small scroll feet and has two handles in the form of acanthus leaves that rise from the base of each end, each leaf having a line of imbricated discs along the spine. This model was probably adapted from a design by Jean-Claude Duplessis. The general shape and especially the distinctive scroll feet and handles of the vase are similar to those seen on a drawing of his for a seau à liqueurs probably intended to be made in silver. The second and third sizes of this model were introduced in 1759 along with a number of other flower vases such as the cuvette à tombeau (see cat. 84) and vase à compartiments (see cat. 81) that were also introduced in smaller sizes that same year. The model was popular and still in production in the late 1780s. The smaller sizes were often combined with other shapes, including vases hollandois, vases à fleurs Chantilly, and cuvettes Mahon, to form garnitures. This example is also of the third size and, except for the figural scene in the painted reserve, the surface decoration on this vase is the same. The colored reserve on the front is painted with a rustic landscape showing an unconscious man seated on the ground and leaning against a barrel; a woman with a child at her side both stand looking down at the man. This scene was painted by Jean-Louis Morin, a leading figure painter at the manufactory, who began working in colored reserves around 1758, initially painting "Teniers" scenes such as on this vase, but later moving on to specialize in harbor and military scenes. It is possible that this vase, marked for 1762, was made to replace a broken or lost pair to 27.48, which is marked for 1759 and has a reserve painted by Charles-Nicolas Dodin. The decorative scheme of blue and green ground colors and the elaborate combination of gilt patterns was presumably copied from the earlier example or the lost original, with even the gilded rosette on the back being of the same pattern. Nevertheless, the details of the surface decoration on this later vase are executed with less precision. The gilded dots of the pointillé pattern and the shapes of the caillouté and vermiculé gilding are larger than are similar details on the earlier vase, indicating that these details were executed by different decorators. Another difference is that the blue on the imbricated disks along the spine of each handle is a light blue overglaze color, rather than the underglaze blue lapis as on the earlier vase. For a further discussion of the two vases as a pair, see cat. 82. The figural scene on the front of the vase was a popular composition at the manufactory. It was painted with variations by Antoine Caton (active 1749-1797), Charles-Nicolas Dodin (1734-1803, active 1754-1802), and André-Vincent Vielliard (1717-1790, active 1752-1790), in addition to Morin. The most elaborate version of the scene, which includes musicians with dancing and drinking figures in the background, was painted by Dodin on a cuvette Courteille dated for 1760. Vielliard appears to have treated the subject the most frequently. Morin painted the same subject on a cuvette à tombeau of 1759. In the case of the Huntington cuvette Courteille, Morin may be copying an earlier version of the same scene by Dodin; see cat. 82. The version on this vase represents one of the simplest renderings of this subject. Most other treatments of the scene include a standing male figure behind the slumped man, supporting him by the shoulders, perhaps in an attempt to raise him to his feet. These variations among similar scenes show that the Sèvres artists did not simply copy one another but adapted their material to the decorative scheme of individual pieces. In this case, the reserve is relatively small and low, leaving little room for the depiction of other figures. For a discussion of the replication of subjects in sculpture, which bears some relation to the adaptation of genre subjects on Sèvres, see the essay by Malcolm Baker in this volume.
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