Plaque (tableau)

In 1761 Madame de Pompadour bought a tableau for 600 livres, the first of this kind of porcelain pictures meant to be framed and hung on the wall like a painting. It may well have been this beautiful plaque by Dodin depicting A Resting Place of Hunters with figures in a landscape derived from a painting by the Flemish painter Carel van Falens (1683–1733). One of the most talented artists working at the Sèvres manufactory, Dodin did not work from an engraving, as was common practice, but from the painting itself which Falens had presented at the Paris Académy Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1726. Dodin was paid 96 livres for a "1 Tableau à personnages" in 1761 the discription clearly distinguished it from so-called plaques, generally intended for mounting on furniture.

Credit: Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1954