The Wet Nurse La Nourrice, after Louis Simon Boizot

Date

after 1774

Creator

This unglazed porcelain group of four figures seated around a woman breastfeeding an infant had considerable resonance when it was first created in 1774. The figure at the right holding a bassinet is a servant; the other figures, including a young girl crouched behind the chair, and the young boy dressed in a military costume, reach behind the seated woman’s chair, obviously playing. Next to the servant, there is a small woven basket on the base that reinforces the genre elements of the scene. While some critics maintain that bourgeois overtones of the group predominate, there are far more pertinent ties that can be established with the royal family, especially with Marie Antoinette, who became Queen of France in 1774. from Weisberg, A Taste for Porcelain: The Virginia A. Marten Collection of Decorative Arts (Notre Dame, 2014)