Two dancers

The figures produced by European porcelain factories during the middle decades of the eighteenth century reflect a wide variety of themes, and the various forms of entertainment popular at this time provided a particularly fertile range of subject matter for the factories to explore. Figures from the commedia dell’arte were a primary focus for porcelain modelers (see 54.147.66; 1982.60.300; 1982.60.309) but opera and dance figures also had considerable appeal. The figures of dancers produced at the Ludwigsburg factory during the early 1760s were not only a tangible indication of the status of ballet at this time but also a direct reflection of the interests of the factory’s founder, Karl Eugen (1728–1793), Duke of Württemberg.

Karl Eugen was an active patron of the arts, and his engagement with ballet led to the employment of French choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre (1727–1810) in 1760 to produce ballets for his court.[1] Among the artists and performers hired to execute Noverre’s dances was the Frenchman Louis- René Boquet (1717–1814), a designer of costumes and sets. The elaborate costumes worn by the Ludwigsburg dancers, distinguished by their wide skirts, are typical of the type of costumes popular at this time. The Ludwigsburg group was created at the very moment when the highly structured costumes of Baroque dance were beginning to be superseded by less- formal apparel that allowed for greater freedom of movement (see 50.211.225).[2] The stiff poses of the Museum’s two figures reflect the conventions of this earlier style of dance, and a more expressive form of movement would characterize the emerging ballet d’action (ballet with a plot).[3] The Ludwigsburg factory produced a number of models of dancers depicted singly, in pairs, and in groups of three,[4] and it can be assumed that the genesis for these works lay in Karl Eugen’s active patronage of ballet both in Stuttgart, the official seat of his family, and in nearby Ludwigsburg, to which he gradually moved his court.

Karl Eugen’s interest in the arts and his desire to create a cultured court must have been the motivation to establish a porcelain factory in 1758.[5] Several unsuccessful attempts had been made as early as 1751 to produce porcelain under his patronage, and it was not until a year after he officially founded the factory that porcelain could be made on a commercial scale. The factory’s successful production was due to the hiring of Joseph Jakob Ringler (Austrian, 1730–1804), who had gained experience by working at a number of German factories, including those at Höchst and Nymphenburg. Within several months, the Ludwigsburg factory employed thirty- three workers, and from the beginning, figures and figure groups were an important focus of their production.[6] It can be assumed that this emphasis reflects the taste of Karl Eugen, who subsidized the factory from its inception, and whose engagement with the factory is reflected by its mark in the form of his initial in addorsed format. Unfortunately, the location of Ludwigsburg proved to be a poor choice as a site for a porcelain factory, due to not only the absence of high-quality clay but also the lack of extensive forests to provide the necessary firewood for fuel for the kilns. In addition, the factory’s site was not near a river that could facilitate the transportation of necessary ingredients and thus reduce costs.[7] These shortcomings created ongoing financial problems for Ludwigsburg, and it survived largely due to Karl Eugen’s patronage.


Despite these challenges, the factory’s production by the early 1760s was extensive and reflected a high level of quality. A broad range of figure types was produced, and a number of modelers were employed by the factory during the 1760s. Most of the figures of dancers are attributed to the modeler Joseph Nees (German, active at Ludwigsburg 1759–68) and are datable to the years 1760–63, making them among the earliest figures produced at Ludwigsburg. Despite a certain awkward-ness of pose and a tendency toward excessively long arms, the dancers modeled by Nees embody the sense of elegance and refined gesture that define ballet. Furthermore, they convey the feeling that a specific moment in an actual dance has been captured.[8] The stances of the two dancers reflect close observation or knowledge of dance, suggesting the position known in ballet as quatrième croisé devant.[9] Other Ludwigsburg modelers, such as Johann Christian Wilhelm Beyer (German, active at Ludwigsburg 1763–67) and Joseph Weinmüller (German, 1746–1812), created works demonstrating greater sculptural skill and sophistication, but the sense of immediacy inherent in Nees’s dancers marks them as among the factory’s most engaging works.


Footnotes
(For key to shortened references see bibliography in Munger, European Porcelain in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018)
1 For more information about the duke’s involvement with opera, see Fauchier-Magnan 1958, pp. 184–92.
2 Clare Le Corbeiller in Metropolitan Museum 1984a, p. 290.
3 M. Clarke and Crisp 1978, pp. 21–24.
4 Flach 1997, colorpl. 13, and p. 515, nos. 97–102, ill.
5 For a history of the factory, see Hesse 2010; Nelson 2013, pp. 331–47.
6 Nelson 2013, p. 332.
7 Hesse 2010, p. 231.
8 See especially Flach 1997, p. 445.
9 I thank Rika Burnham, Head of Education, Frick Collection, New York, and Clinton Luckett, Assistant Artistic Director, American Ballet Theatre, New York, for their informed and very helpful observations.