  About the Artwork
  
  
  Under the direction of Konrad Sörgel von Sorgenthal from 1784 until 1805, the Imperial Porcelain Factory of Vienna developed a unique style of decoration based on a rich new palette of colors (such as the café au lait ground used here) and improved methods of gilding. The simplified cylindrical shapes provided ideal surfaces for painting the large landscape views popular since the 1770s. Porcelain decorators, now trained in art academies, rivaled the finest painters of late eighteenth-century Europe. Decorating this tea set are miniature views of Pavlovsk Palace and park, the summer residence near Saint Petersburg of the Russian imperial family.
  
  
  Title
  Coffee Can and Saucer
  
  
  Artwork Date
  ca. 1804
  
  Artist
  Vienna Porcelain Factory
  
  
  
  Life Dates
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  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Austrian
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Hard-paste porcelain with polychrome decoration and gold
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall (cup): 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 inches (6.4 × 6.4 cm)
  Overall (saucer): 1 1/8 × 5 3/8 inches (2.9 × 13.7 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Ceramics
  
  
  Department
  European Sculpture and Dec Arts
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase with funds from the Visiting Committee for European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  1988.69.6
  
  
  Copyright
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