Little Girl with a Doll

Biscuit, i.e., unglazed porcelain. Upright rectangle base. In a thin frame formed by parallel lines, a small girl holds a doll in her arms. The child’s face is shown in left profile, her gaze resting on the toy. Her long hair is held together by a ribbon behind her head, and runs down loosely on her back. Her dress is decorated with ruffles on the shoulders and has a long, flared cut. Stepping out with the right foot, she seems to be captured as if in a snapshot. To the right of the child, a lily springs up from the ground, suggesting this intimate, idyllic scene is set in a garden. The lily also has a secondary meaning: it is a symbol of gentleness, purity, innocence, as well as fertility—a common attribute in artworks depicting the Virgin Mary in scenes whose theme is the Annunciation or the Immaculate Conception.
Signature on the verso, pressed into the mass, in cursive script: ‘Jenő Farkasházy / Herend, 1909.’ Jenő Farkasházy Fischer, the grandson of Mór Fischer, the founder of the Herend Porcelain Manufactory, attended the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, and went on to study in England and Germany. He worked at the Herend factory from 1897 until his death in 1926.
The collection of the Museum of Applied Arts contains seven more biscuit plaquettes, signed in the manner described above (Inv. no. 54.1065.1–54.1069.1, 54.1071.1 and 54.1121.1). The plaquettes were property of Dr Ottó Fettich, a physician, university professor and art collector, who bequeathed his collection to the Museum.