Reclining cherub

Figure of a cherub-reclining on a rectangular pad cushion, supporting himself on his right arm and looking to his right, his left arm raised. The porcelain dense white and with clear glaze. Green translucency. L.4.0in (10.1 cm).

Provenance: Christies, London, December, 2004, Lot #16; the Dudley Delevinge Collection; with Armin B. Allen, New York: Sotheby’s New York, 11 October 1995, Lot 345.

This example illustrated, Bradshaw, 1992, Plate 29, p.71, #A36, and Patrick Synge-Hutchinson, The Connoiseur, Vol 175, #700, June 1970, p.100, fig.3.

The figure was presumably based on a marble by (or terracotta or drawing after) the Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy 1597-1643, popularly known as Il Fiammingo. A small  series of Chelsea figures from the late 1740s were also based on his work, see, for example, Emerson, et al, 2000, Plate 14.7, p. 217; Brian Haughton Antiques, 2004, #7, p.11.

The figure has the apearance of being part of a larger, rather baroque, composition.