Z Coffee cup, Qianlong c.1785, with a fête galante French scene
Coffee cup, c.1785, decorated with a French fête galante scene in the style of Watteau.
I am grateful to Christopher Coles for his suggestion that this scene in fact copies an engraving after a painting of the 1730s by the artist Philippe Mercier (1689-1760) who by then was established in London as Library Keeper and Principal Painter to the Prince of Wales (son of George II), and whose genre subjects in the style of Watteau were greatly sought-after and influenced later artists such as Hogarth.
... depicts a courting couple on a garden seat, the man in a tricorn hat, with a mysterious onlooker wearing an artist’s beret behind. This figure, quite clearly defined on the porcelain cup, is intriguingly further suggested to be a likeness of the artist himself, which seems almost certain with comparison to this self-portrait by Mercier, also in the British Museum:
European subjects on porcelain were very popular from the 1740s onwards, where engravings and bookplates could be copied by the Chinese artisans in fine and extremely accurate detail. By the third quarter of the 18th century scenes of fêtes galante, a fashion first emanating from the French court at Versailles and a pretext for depicting bucolic and gently amorous scenes on porcelain, were clearly selling well in the China shops of London and Paris. The scene on the cup at this date is almost certainly derived from intermediate designs as other elements such as the urn on a pedestal and a palm tree have crept in from elsewhere in the Chinese painter’s repertoire, but there seems little doubt of the inspiration. The indistinct flower at the foot of the couple was almost certainly once a faithful hound!
Reference : Wirgin, Jan; Från Kina till Europa, p.189
Condition : Hairline at base handle secured, rim gilding worn