MORIN, Jean-Louis - b. 1732 Vincennes, d. 1787 Sèvres

French porcelain painter. When Jean-Louis Morin started work at age twenty-one at the Vincennes Porcelain Manufactory, he was described as “five foot four inches high, with red hair, shifty eyes and nearly white [skin]…and freckles, wearing a wig, with an ugly body.” The son of an army surgeon, Morin studied surgery before changing his profession to porcelain painter. According to the factory’s enrolment register, he started with an adequate knowledge of drawing but had little talent for the more difficult task of applying colours. After a couple of years of practice, however, he was “making progress with his use of colours” and “his talents and work [had] improved.”

Morin first practiced on vases and tea wares, painting cherubs on clouds or in landscapes. He advanced to become one of the factory’s leading figure painters, specializing in battle scenes, military encampments, seascapes, and harbour scenes. The majority of his work was painted on tea and useful wares, as well as on flower and ornamental vases. Morin signed his works with a scrolling M or m.

"Pair of "Antique Ferrés" Vases"

The evident antique-style of the decorative repertory of “antique ferr�s” vase, created c. 1763, evidences the sudden intrusion of Neoclassicism in the S�vres factory in the 1760s, under the instigation of �tienne-Maurice Falconet. The belly of each one of them is adorned with four painted panels, linked to one another and suspended to the neck by ropes in relief. The battle scenes in the foreground, painted in polychromy, are attributed to Jean-Louis Morin, the S�vres specialist in military scenes. On the sides, trophies and, in the background, wreathes of interwoven palms are painted.