"Deer and stag family", large pair of round plaques by Narcisse Vivien

Pair of circular faience plaques set in square gilt mahogany frames, made in France in the second half of the 19th century by the animal painter Narcisse Vivien. Entitled ‘Family of Stags and Hinds’, the pair features painted decoration depicting deer in a wooded landscape. On the first plaque, a stag stands above a hind and her fawns, while the second shows a group in a woodland clearing. Each plaque measures 52 cm in diameter, with a frame measuring 70 cm by 70 cm. A specialist in animal painting and a teacher at the École Bernard Palissy, Narcisse Vivien exhibited at the 1878 Exposition universelle in Paris and at the Salon in 1886.