Beschreibung:

A RARE PORCELAIN GROUP OF A KRASNOYARSK SHAMAN WOMAN FROM THE ‘PEOPLES OF RUSSIA’ SERIES
BY THE IMPERIAL PORCELAIN FACTORY, ST PETERSBURG, 1780-1790S
A RARE PORCELAIN GROUP OF A KRASNOYARSK SHAMAN WOMAN FROM THE ‘PEOPLES OF RUSSIA’ SERIES BY THE IMPERIAL PORCELAIN FACTORY, ST PETERSBURG, 1780-1790s Realistically modelled and painted, the group depicting a standing figure of a shaman woman wearing a purple dress, a traditional hat with feathers and furs, holding a tambourine and a mallet in her hands, and a seated young woman embracing her child, wearing a red coat, striped trousers, a traditional fur-lined hat and yellow shoes, on an oval naturalistic base, moulded with Russian inscription ‘Shamanka Krasnoyarskaya’, apparently unmarked 11¼ in. (28.5 cm.) high AN EXCEPTIONAL AND RARE GROUP OF EARLY PORCELAIN FIGURES FROM THE 'PEOPLES OF RUSSIA' SERIES The Peoples of Russia is the most important and celebrated series by Jacques-Dominique Rachette (1744-1809), the chief modeller at the Imperial Porcelain Factory during the reign of Empress Catherine II. The series was inspired by famous ethnographer and traveller Johann Gottlieb Georgi's book, entitled A Description of All the Peoples Inhabiting the Russian State, published in 1776-1777. Rachette’s workshop was responsible for manufacturing around one hundred figures based on drawings from the book, including a few rare group figures represented in this collection. The present collection comes directly from the family of Count Louis de Jonghe d'Ardoye (1820-1893), a Belgian diplomat who served in Prussia, Austria and Russia. In 1891 he was appointed Belgian Minister of State, being one of only few non-Ministers or cabinet members to be given this honorary title. The largest collections of the Peoples of Russia series are in the State Hermitage and the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg, Kuskovo Palace in Moscow, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.