Harlequin with girl, dancing the Mazurka
Meissen model by Johann Joachim Kaendler c. 1743 / swords mark on unglazed base / 16.5 cm high (18 cm with mount) / modell number 404 (= 1743) / fire-gilt bronze mount
The group was previously attributed to Johann Friedrich Eberlein, based on a work report from September 1735 (Acevedo No. 104, p. 49): “1. Two small figures depicting a Tyrolean man and woman dancing.”
Menzhausen (1993) rightly reassigned the group (≠ two dancing figures) to Kaendler, in our opinion, and linked it to his TAXA entry (Rafael No. 137, p. 57): “1. Small group depicting a Harlequin and a similar female figure dancing the Polish dance together, 10 Thlr.”
Menzhausen further explains in the catalog of the Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collection (op. cit., pp. 136 f.): "This Polish dance was the Mazurka, a dance in 3/4 time originating from the Masovian Voivodeship (Masuria), known for its somewhat wild character. It gained popularity during the reign of Augustus III and was performed at court in a modified, more refined form.
The Polka, on the other hand, was invented in 1830 by Anna Slezak, a peasant girl from Bohemia. It was named after the Czech half-step ‘pulka’ that was characteristic of the dance."
(For more on both dances, see the Wikipedia entries.)
Ulrich Pietsch (2006, No. 99) references La Danse, an engraving by Pierre Filoeul after Jean-Baptiste Pater, as a possible source of inspiration for Kaendler, albeit in the broadest sense. Eberlein could not have been familiar with this engraving, as it was only published in March 1739 (Pater No. 228, fig. 20).
The group was popular in the 18th century, with copies produced in Chelsea and Bow, as well as in Chinese porcelain from the Qianlong period.
Comparative Pieces, among others:
- Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collection (UK, pp. 80–83)
- Porcelain Collection in the Zwinger, Dresden (Pietsch No. 99)
- Sir Bernard Eckstein Collection (Sotheby’s, May 30–31, 1949, No. 186)
- The René Fribourg Collection (V No. 493) = Darmstädter Collection (Rudolph Lepke, March 24–26, 1925, No. 71, Plate 7)
- Röbbig, Invention und Vollendung: Kunstwerke des 18. Jahrhunderts, No. 55
- Pietsch, Frühes Meissener Porzellan. Kostbarkeiten aus deutschen Privatsammlungen, 1997, No. 190