The Figurine

William M. Paxton, born Baltimore, MD 1869-died Newton, MA 1941 · 1921

The Figurine illustrates the vogue for Asian decorative wares that informed American collecting tastes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here, a Chinese blue-and-white jar is shown alongside a Chinese figurine; a maid delicately cleans the glass encasing the figurine. Paxton’s compositions often portray women in beautiful interiors. The light source from the left highlighting the woman’s rosy complexion, combined with the sensitive attention to detail, recall the works of the seventeenth-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer.