Curator of the collection

Sculpture Odalisque. Leningrad, Lomonosov State Porcelain Factory. 1850s. Overglaze paintwork on porcelain. Height: 93 cm. Marks: In the clay—sickle, hammer, and part of a gear. Initials of the modeler and a red export stamp.

Sculpture Odalisque. Leningrad, Lomonosov State Porcelain Factory. 1850s. Overglaze paintwork on porcelain. Height: 93 cm. Marks: In the clay—sickle, hammer, and part of a gear. Initials of the modeler and a red export stamp.

Ivan Kuznetsov

Ivan Kuznetsov

EXPERT OPINION ON THE SCULPTURE ODALISQUE. LATE 1920S. LOMONOSOV STATE PORCELAIN FACTORY.

From a 1850s factory model by Andrei Miklashevsky. Overglaze paintwork on porcelain; height: 93 cm Marks: In the clay—sickle, hammer, and part of a gear. Initials of the modeler and a red export stamp. The sculpture Odalisque was executed in Leningrad at the Lomonosov State Porcelain Factory from a revived factory model by Andrei Miklashevsky. This sculpture was also produced in the mid-1920s by the Komintern Porcelain and Whiteware Factory in Volkhov, part of the Novgubfarfor Association. The model was copied from the one available in the factory’s sculpture museum done by Miklashevsky in the mid-19th century. It is likely that it entered the museum’s collection after the October Revolution (1917) thanks to the intensive expansion of the collection using funds from the Harkompros Commission for the Affairs of Museums and the Protection of Monuments. For example, in 1919, dinner service items, sculptures, and vases from the Imperial Porcelain Factory, Western European and Russian private factories were obtained from antique shops and private individuals, including Miklashevsky’s factory.

In the second half of the 1920s, the Lomonosov State Porcelain Factory began to reproduce porcelain works from the 19th century. This can be explained by the dearth of contemporary models paired with rising consumer demand and a developing export business. The model of Odalisque was cast from an old model by one of the factory’s modelers (In this case, Ivan Kuznetsov) and put into production in the second half of the 1920s. The sculpture was in production until the late 1920s-early 1930s with various paintwork. This example of the sculpture Odalisque, from its material qualities (the thickness of the porcelain, its size, and the shape of its base) and the paintwork, is very similar to famous examples from the late 1920s in museum collections. The time of manufacture of the one made for export can also be considered to be the late 1920s. The sculpture Odalisque, executed at the Lomonosov State Porcelain Factory in the 1920s for export, has artistic value and value for museums.

Art expert and specialist in Russian porcelain of the 18th-20th centuries, I. P. Popova