The Broken Shoe (Le Sabot Cassé)

Sèvres Manufactory|Etienne-Maurice Falconet

ca. 1760 · Soft-paste biscuit porcelain · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Works of art by the French artist François Boucher (1703–1770), who held the prestigious title of first painter to the king, served as a highly popular source of inspiration for artists working in a variety of media in the middle decades of the eighteenth century. Prints made after paintings by Boucher were widely circulated and provided artists with compositions that could be faithfully reproduced in smaller scale or adapted to three-dimensional porcelain sculpture. Works by Boucher served as the source not only for the painted scenes on vases and snuffboxes, but also for the porcelain figures which were listed as "Enfants Boucher" (Boucher Children) in the factory’s sales ledgers.

Artist

Sèvres Manufactory|Etienne-Maurice Falconet

Date

ca. 1760

Medium

Soft-paste biscuit porcelain

Culture

French, Sèvres

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1952