Pair Of Terracotta Sculptures On Two Trompe-l'oeil Painted Wooden Columns, 19th Century

Pair of sculptures on columns
Terracotta, wood
19th
First half

Important pair of polychrome terracotta sculptures depicting a young woman dancing and a young man playing the bagpipes dressed in the pastoral fashion of the 18th century. The shepherdess and the shepherd rest on two columns in carved and painted wood imitating marble in trompe-l'oeil.
Possibility of separation either:
* The pair of sculptures for the sum of 8800 Euros
* The pair of sheaths for the sum of 2200 Euros

The Sèvres factory produced, from 1752, a series of eight biscuits, called "the Boucher children" which were very successful. Among these sculptures are the bagpipe player and the dancer, created by the sculptor Pierre Blondeau. They refer to a ballet by Favart, Les Vendanges de Tempé, a pantomime performed from 1745 which featured villagers among whom a pastor in love played the bagpipes to charm his sweetheart.
The biscuit representing the bagpiper was revived in the 18th century and made of terracotta. A copy measuring 120 cm in height is kept in the collections of the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City.
From the 19th century, the biscuit of the dancer was also made of terracotta, associated with the bagpiper to make a pair. Examples of these pairs of terracotta sculptures are known, one of which is located at the Château d'Omonville in Normandy.