Meissen Porcelain figural group of a Chinese woman and two boys, modeled by J.J.Kändler and his assistants after Boucher, made c.1750. About 5 1/2″ high.
The woman is holding a large kettle and a jug from which she pours hot chocolate into a cup placed on a tray held by a boy, while another boy kneels at her feet holding a bowl of fruits including lemons and plums, both boys with shaved heads and pigtails, all set on an irregular shaped base applied with flowers and leaves.
a young Chinese woman is pouring hot chocolate with her left hand into the cup a child is holding out to her. Here The subject is from Les Délices de l’Enfance (The Delights of Childhood), an engraving by Jean-Joseph Balechou, based on a series of drawings by François Boucher, one of the main contributors to the spread of chinoiserie in the decorative arts. This was echoed in the recent introduction of chocolate, an exotic drink, in France and Germany, which was particularly popular with the elites. The genre scene presented, combining two references from “elsewhere”, is an illustration of the intra-European circulation of artistic motifs, in which engraving played a major role.