Porcelain Tray

Of all the painters who worked at the Sèvres porcelain factory, none has a higher reputation than Charles-Nicolas Dodin. As the Sèvres expert Rosalind Savill writes, his ‘draughtsmanship, his meticulous technique, subtle colouring and atmospheric effects were superior to those of even his most talented colleaguesÂ’. Dodin, who worked at Sèvres for nearly 50 years, painted this oval soft-paste porcelain tray in 1772. The pastoral subject is taken from an engraving by Andrew Lawrence (a British artist who worked in Paris under the name Andre Laurent), who adapted it from François BoucherÂ’s painting Le Pasteur galant (c. 1739). It is the first piece by Dodin, and the first major example of Sèvres subject painting, to join the AshmoleanÂ’s display of French porcelain in its European Ceramics gallery.