Jacques François Swebach Desfontaines, nach Lot n° 1432

Imperial Russian vase "Kyrgyz". Porcelain, colored enamel decor, bisque porcelain, mat and etched gilding. Fired and screwed in two parts, on a square bronze plinth. On the obverse in an oblong etched leaf frame four Kirghiz with horses, in front of a wooded, hilly landscape. Verso gold-etched trophies in a round braided band frame, attached to two hippocamps. The lower wall surrounded by an antique leaf wreath in relief. Separate pinned handles in the form of sculpted lotus flowers, the lower ends restored over chips. H 53,5, with plinth 56,3 cm. Plinth 3 cm x 19 cm x 19 cm. St. Petersburg, Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, the decorative design by Jacques François Swebach Desfontaines, first quarter of the 19th century. Jacques (Josse) François Joseph Swebach Desfontaines (1769 - 1823) made his debut as a fourteen-year-old in 1783 with his drawings in the Salon de la Correspondance under the pseudonym "Fountein". After he had already published a lot, he was commissioned in 1800 to paint a picture for Malmaison Palace, "Cavalcade et proménade en caleche", the portrait of Joséphine Bonaparte on horseback. In 1802 he obtained a permanent position at the porcelain manufactory in Sèvres, where he remained until 1813 and was involved, among other things, in the completion of the famous "Service Egyptien" (1806). His main focus was on landscapes, horsemen and soldiers, historical scenes. In some courtly commissions he was involved as a painter. In 1815 he appears in St. Petersburg, where he takes over as artistic director of the Imperial Manufactory under Tsar Alexander I. Literature A slightly larger vase with different (figural) handles but identical motif, painted by Denis-Joseph Moreau (1807 - 1815), in the collection of the Hermitage St. Petersburg. Cf. Préaud (ed.), The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory. Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800 - 1847, 1997, pp. 135, 141.