Louis XV ca. 1756 Tournai This bust is one of the most remarkable porcelain sculptures produced in the eighteenth century. It was made in the late 1750s in Tournai, a town located in present-day Belgium but part of the Austrian Netherlands at the time of the bust’s manufacture. The factory was established in 1750 by François-Joseph Peterinck (French, 1719–1799), who may have acquired the technical knowledge required to pro-duce soft- paste porcelain from the French potters Robert Dubois (French, 1709–1759) and Gilles Dubois (French, b. 1713).[1] The Dubois brothers had worked at Chantilly, Vin

Louis XV ca. 1756 Tournai This bust is one of the most remarkable porcelain sculptures produced in the eighteenth century. It was made in the late 1750s in Tournai, a town located in present-day Belgium but part of the Austrian Netherlands at the time of the bust’s manufacture. The factory was established in 1750 by François-Joseph Peterinck (French, 1719–1799), who may have acquired the technical knowledge required to pro-duce soft- paste porcelain from the French potters Robert Dubois (French, 1709–1759) and Gilles Dubois (French, b. 1713).[1] The Dubois brothers had worked at Chantilly, Vincennes, and the Rue de Charenton factory in Paris before going to Tournai, and their experience at those factories appears to have been instrumental in the Tournai factory’s founding.[2] The bust depicts Louis XV (1710–1774), king of France, and it is likely that it was produced at Tournai around 1756, when he was approximately forty-six years old. This date seems probable for the bust due to the close stylistic similarity and scale to another one made at Tournai that portrays Charles de Lorraine (Duchy of Lorraine, 1712–1780), which appears to be the bust cited in a letter from 1756.[3] The Museum’s bust of Louis XV is one of six known to have been made at Tournai,[4] and these busts, along with the bust of Charles, reflect an exceptional technical and artistic accomplishment for a factory founded less than a decade before their manufacture. Technically, the busts are remarkable for their size and for the difficulties of firing soft-paste porcelain on this scale. The technical challenges posed by the kiln are illustrated by the prominent firing crack that runs through the monarch’s wig at the back of his neck. The crack appears to have occurred during the first or so-called biscuit firing, and it was repaired shortly thereafter by inserting a mixture of ground-up porcelain and glaze that hardened during the second firing when the glaze was applied. It is a mea

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