Object of the Day , Museum Edition: A French Biscuit Figure, 1904

The Victoria & Albert Museum

As styles changed from the more formal sculptures of the Nineteenth Century, French artists experimented with figures which represented motion and drama. This new mind-set was one of the seeds from which the Art Nouveau movement grew.

This figure perfectly sums up the spirit of the Art Nouveau style. This was originally part of a group of fifteen, entitled 'Jeu de l'Echarpe' ('Scarf Dance'), and was inspired by the sensational dance performed by the American Loïe Fuller, who was a regular fixture at the Folies Bergère in Paris.

This motif of the free-flowing, silk-clad dancer came into the front of artistic consciousness in 1893 in an iconic lithograph by the French artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. The theatricality of this Sèvres figure and its supporting group solidified the motif in turn-of-the-century Parisian art.

The group is the work of Agathon Léonard for Sèvres. He began the group in 1898 and displayed some of the pieces at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, where Sèvres won a prize. The figures were described in the exhibition report as "a graceful and charming ensemble which were a great and deserved success." The figures were produced by Sèvres in many editions and were also copied in bronze and porcelain.