Musical Shepherd and Shepherdess before an Obelisk

The rocaille ornament is highlighted in blue and gold. The musical shepherdess corresponds to the figure from the group "The Disturbed Sleeper".

This very rare group is based on a model by Franz Anton Bustelli of ca. 1756, which was reworked by Peter Anton Seefried between 1763 and 1767. An unpainted example from the Rüttgers Collection, Munich, was described as an unique piece in the preface of the auction catalogue (Hugo Helbing, Munich, 28–29 October 1927, p. 4 and no. 93, pl. VI; edited by Dr Armin Hausladen). This white group later also entered the Kaumheimer Collection and was sold in 2003 together with our example at Christie’s (8 December 2003, no. 62). Hofmann (Nymphenburg III, p. 405, fig. 329, text p. 503) describes it as a “posthumous” version of a Bustelli group. The Christie’s catalogue notes: *“This group modelled after Bustelli with modifications by Peter Anton Seefried.”

• In addition to this white group, only one other painted example is recorded, from the collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild II (anonymous sale, Christie’s, 17 October 1977, no. 215).

The group forms the counterpart to Bustelli’s model The Disturbed Sleeper, which is also in our possession (see following illustration). Both are exactly matched in decoration, composition, and markings. The identical turner’s number “43” confirms that this is the exceptionally rare case of an originally conceived and still united pair.

We have not been able to trace another original pair of these two groups.