18th CENTURY SÈVRES HARD PORCELAIN BISCUIT FIGURE, circa 1776 Model attributed to Josse-François-Joseph Le Riche (1741-1812), under the direction of Louis-Simon Boizot (1743-1809) Depicting a portrait of the Emperor Qianlong, known as the Emperor of China, standing with hands clasped, wearing a fur coat and toque, on a square base Engraved Bo for Boizot and numbered 7; gunshot to right wrist, pearl missing from top of hat, small chips to base H.40 cm (15 ¾ in.) Provenance: Estate of the painter Johann Gottfried Steffan (1815-1905), Munich; Then by descent to the present owner; Swiss private collection. An 18th century Sevres hard-paste biscuit porcelain figure depicting a portrait of Emperor Qianlong, "l'Empereur de la Chine", circa 1776, the model attributed to Josse-François-Joseph Le Riche (1741-1812), under the direction of Louis-Simon Boizot (1743-1809) From December 1764, Henri Léonard Bertin (1720-1792), Louis XV's Secretary of State, was responsible for the Sèvres porcelain factory as part of his ministerial duties. That same year, the Jesuits were banished from France. Anxious to consolidate the position of the French Jesuit missions in China, Minister Bertin, who was also a sinophile, kept up a correspondence with several Jesuit fathers based in China, in particular Father Jean-Joseph Amiot (1718-1793), who had been in China since 1740 and in Peking since 1751 by order of Emperor Qianlong. It was also in the early years of the 1760s, probably at Bertin's instigation, that the Sèvres manufactory created new shapes directly inspired by Chinese porcelain, temporarily moving away from a fantasised China (see, for example, the vases known today as Indian vases, with a celestial blue background, Sotheby's sale, London, 3 July 2013, lot 38). To support his diplomatic policy, in 1764 the minister Bertin ordered nineteen porcelains from the Sèvres factory "to be sent to China", comprising seven vases, ten pieces of sculpture and two pieces for the toilet, for a total of 4,560 livres. He renewed gifts of Sèvres porcelain to the emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) in 1772, 1779 and 1786 (detailed by Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, "Les porcelaines de Sèvres envoyées en guise de cadeaux diplomatiques à l'empereur de Chine par les souverains français dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle", Extrême- Orient Extrême-Occident, 43, 2019, pp.81-92). The correspondence between Bertin and the Jesuit fathers in China, a true ethnographic exchange, was published by Father Amiot from 1776 under the title Mémoires concernant l'Histoire, les Sciences, les Arts, les Mœurs, les Usages, etc. des Chinois par les missionnaires de Pékin. Amiot also sent Bertin various Chinese objects: porcelain, including a bowl decorated with a poem in Qianlong's hand, silk cloth, musical instruments and portraits of Chinese generals. Following the death of Father Joseph Castiglione in 1766, the emperor Qianlong called Friar Guiseppe Panzi to Peking in 1773 to take up the post of court painter. A letter from Father Michel Benoît (1715-1774) dated 4 November 1773 describes Brother Panzi's introduction to the emperor: The emperor (...) had the work suspended in order to undertake his own portrait. He explained how he wanted to be painted, from the front and not from the side, as is done in Europe; the similar parts of the two sides of the face had to appear equally in the portrait, so that the portrait always looked at the viewer. The emperor had us approach him very close so that the painter could see him at his ease. Brother Panzi placed his easel eight feet from the emperor. Kien-Long pointed out certain facts to which he wanted the painter to pay particular attention. He pointed out that his left eyebrow had a small empty space that was barely visible. He wanted this defect to be represented in the painting, because, he said: "It's my portrait he's painting, he mustn't flatter me. It's the same with the wrinkles on my face; the painter must be warned to make them appear more obvious. They must all be represented and I must not be made to appear younger than I am" (quoted by Michel Beurdeley, Peintres jésuites en Chine au XVIIIe siècle, 1977, pp. 186-197 and Chao Ying Lee, "Les portraits du pères Amiot et de l'empereur Kien-Long dans les Mémoires concernant les Chinois, fruit d'une collaboration artistique entre Amiot et le peintre Panzi", in Art et amitié aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles en Europe, GRHAM, 2023, pp. 156-157). In 1775 or 1776, Brother Panzi's watercolour portrait of Qianlong was sent to Henri-Léonard Bertin in France. The minister entrusted the portrait to the Sèvres manufactory, which produced a first painting on a porcelain plate by Charles-Éloi Asselin. It was acquired by King Louis XVI in 1776 for 480 livres. This plate was mentioned in the inventory drawn up in 1791 at Versailles in the corner cabinet: "A Porcelain painting representing a Turk, Emperor of China in its carved and gilded wood border, 14 inches high by 12 inches wide 600 pounds". This plaque is now in the Château de Versailles (see Fig. 1). The drawing of Panzi, now lost, is now known thanks to Martinet's engraving, illustrating the frontispiece of the first volume of Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts... des Chinois par les missionnaires de Pékin (see Fig. 2). At the same time, the Royal Porcelain Manufactory produced a biscuit figure representing a portrait of Qianlong, attributed to Josse-François-Joseph Le Riche under the direction of Louis-Simon Boizot. Thirteen examples were sold for 72 livres by the Sèvres manufactory in the 18th century from 1776. The first example was bought on 10 August 1776 by Louise-Jeanne de Durfort de Duras, Duchess of Mazarin (1735-1781) (Arch. MNS, Vy 7, fol. 118 v°). This sculpture is mentioned in the inventory drawn up after the death of the Duchesse de Mazarin in 1781, in her bedroom in her hotel on the Quai Malaquais, decorated in the latest taste: "no. 64: a biscuit figure by Sève representing a Turk, valued at 60 livres". The description of this figure is more precise in the auction organised by Lebrun on 10 December 1781: "n° 177 A Turk, arms crossed, dressed in a long fur-lined robe; the head covered with a cap of the same kind. Height 17 inches, Width 7 inches, including the glass cage" (see Fig. 3). This biscuit was placed on the lacquered commode, medallion and green-ground plates in Sèvres porcelain by Joseph Baumhauer, delivered in 1769 with a pair of corner pieces, all of which are now in the English Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. The figure of the Emperor of China was in the bedroom of the Duchesse de Mazarin along with a set of three vases, one of which was decorated with a clock by Dutertre in Chinese porcelain with a turquoise blue background (identified by Sylvia Vriz, "Une exceptionnelle paire de vases de la collection du Duc d'Aumont", L'estampille L'objet d'Art, December 2011, pp. 58-61), a large blue and white Chinese porcelain bottle, two celestial blue lions and a Japanese porcelain magot (see Fig. 4). A second example was bought by Queen Marie Antoinette in 1776, along with a set of three vases, Chinese at 3000 livres, now identified as a set of three egg vases decorated with chinoiseries by Lécot and kept at the Château de Versailles. (Arch. MNS, Vy 6, fol. 208 v°). The same year, Madame Adélaïde, one of Louis XVI's aunts, also bought a Chinese Emperor (Arch. MNS, Vy 7, fol. 128). Three figures of Qianlong were sold for cash to anonymous buyers in December 1776 (Arch. MNS, Vy6, f° 118-120-130). Subsequent copies were sold to the Prince de Croÿ with a foot at 48 livres on 23 May 1777 (Arch. MNS, Vy 6, fol. 186), to the merchant Grouet in the first half of 1777 (Arch. MNS, Vy 6, fol. 223), to the Countess d'Artois in Versailles on 28 December 1777 (Arch. MNS, Vy 6, fol. 246 v°), to Madame de Durfort, on 11 December 1777 (Arch. MNS, Vy 7, fol. 111 v°), to an anonymous cash buyer on 16 December 1778 (Arch. MNS, Vy 7, fol. 58), to Count Ponte de Scarnafis, ambassador of Sardinia on 27 April 1779 (Arch. MNS, Vy 7, fol. 137), to an anonymous cash buyer on 26 May 1779 (Arch. MNS, Vy 7, fol. 144). On 26 May 1779, King Louis XVI bought a second porcelain plate described as "1 tableau de l'Empereur de la Chine porté sur le compte du Roi par ordre de Mr de Bertin" for 480 livres (Arch. MNS, Vy7, f° 178r°). It was sent to Amiot in China at the same time as a biscuit figure of Emperor Qianlong, who gave them to Brother Panzi. Amiot wrote to Bertin in November 1784: "I asked Mr Panzi about the use he had made of the full-length statue of the emperor and the portrait painted on porcelain of this prince. He replied that he keeps the statue in his room and that he no longer remembers what has become of the portrait. He begs me to apologise on his behalf" (Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Institut, Ms. 1516, quoted by Chao Ying Lee, op. cit. p. 154. In 1785, the former minister Bertin personally acquired a third plaque showing the Emperor of China for the lesser sum of 192 livres (Arch. MNS, Vy9, fol. 252, v°, mentioned by Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, La Chine à Versailles. Art et diplomatie au XVIIIe siècle, exhibition catalogue, Château de Versailles, 27 May - 26 October 2014, p. 176. Today, only three other copies of the Emperor of China in Sèvres biscuit are published. One is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and came from the Adèle Michon bequest in 1923. Another, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, comes from the former Wilfred A. Sainsbury collection (Sotheby's). Sainsbury (Sotheby's, London, 28 November 1967, lot 70), Antique Porcelain Company, New York and Kiyi and Edward M. Pflueger, reproduced in Hugo Morley-Fletcher, The Pflueger collection, London, 1993, pp. 76-77. A third example recently went on sale (Auctie's Paris, 28 May 2024).