Francine Del Pierre Petite coupe

Francine Del Pierre Petite coupe 1967 Monogrammé 'FD' au cachet Porcelaine, émail vert céladon (Manque le bouchon) H: 3 cm - Ø 6.5 cm Footnotes: Small cup in porcelain with celadon green enamel, designed in 1967 by Francine Del Pierre and monogrammed 'FD' on stamp. (The stopper is missing). Provenance Fina Gomez, acquired from the artist, 1967 Thence by descent to the present owner Exposition / Exhibition 'Francine Del Pierre, Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach, Keramik', Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hambourg, 1 December 1967-7 January 1968 'Francine Del Pierre 1913-1968 Poteries et dessins', Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen, 23 October 1976-5 December 1976 'Collection Fina Gomez, 30 ans de céramique contemporaine', Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, 12 March-23 June 1991 'Céramiques Contemporaines de la Collection Fina Gomez', Musée National Adrien Dubouché, Limoges, 19 October 1995-5 February 1996 Bibliographie / Literature Francine Del Pierre 1913-1968 Poteries et dessins, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen, 1976, cat. 123 Francine Del Pierre, Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach, Keramik, exh. cat., Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hambourg, 1968, cat. no. 63 Yvonne Brunhammer, et al., Collection Fina Gomez, 30 ans de céramique contemporaine, exh. cat., Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, 1991, cat. no. 73 Jean d'Albis Fance Franck, Francine Del Pierre Foundation, Paris The French ceramicist Francine Del Pierre, well known in her lifetime, perfected the ancestral and rudimentary pottery technique of coiling. She managed to perfect the discipline in such a way, that she was able to stack the clay with great finesse and lightness. Her use of decoration was poetic, depicting motifs of flowers and meadow herbs. Del Pierre turned to ceramics aged 31 whilst she was the editorial secretary of a newspaper. She spent her summer in the south where she encountered a santonnier (a maker of Saton figurines), and had a revelation to work with clay. She decided to live with two young students, Albert Diato and Gilbert Portanier, and to settle in a workshop in Vallauris. There they founded the workshop 'The Triptych'. Eventually, the group drifted apart. Francine returned to Paris where she met Fance Franck and the two never parted. In the early 1960s, Del Pierre was set up in an atelier situated on Rue Bonaparte in Paris. After meeting Bernard Leach she gained an interest in Asia, as he introduced her to the influential teachings of the Japanese Living National Treasure, the master potter Shoji Hamada, who suggests that the true path will be found by working in solitude in one's atelier. Shoji Hamada was the leader of a new wave of 'studio pottery' founded by Bernard Leach, presenting the idea that ceramics had become too industrialised, their qualitative and aesthetic results being sometimes questionable. Leach was an advocate of the great tradition of Japanese and Chinese ceramics, whose foundation rested upon the idea of the absolute artist, being both, designer and producer, artisan and creator. The artist alone controls all the stages of production in the atelier and in solitude. This doctrine is a way of life, a search for the absolute that induces a disciplinary intellectual and physical transformation. The style of Francine Del Pierre was based on strict intellectual constraints of 'studio pottery'. Everything was produced with her own hands, making her own enamels and preparing her own earthenware. She was constantly in search of new forms which obeyed strict aesthetic rules. Although aspects of utility are present within her work, she was always pushing boundaries and would remove elements, such as handles, which she deemed too utilitarian. The influence of Chinese goldsmith trade was omnipresent in her work. However, Del Pierre was French at heart and the return to floral motifs, applied in a Chinese style, marked a strong presence of 'French taste' in her work, something that had already made Sèvres a success in the 18th Century. This extraordinary singularity of her work, remarked by Leach early on, propelled her into the international scene which many potters of Vallauris were unable to access. She exhibited in London at Gallery Primavera founded by Henry Rothschild, in Zurich and in Rotterdam. Francine Del Pierre died prematurely in 1968. Thanks to the intervention of the Minister of Culture, André Malraux, Francine is the first ceramicist whose work has been honoured by a retrospective at the Museum of Sèvres, just after her death. La céramiste française Francine Del Pierre, célèbre de son vivant, a perfectionné la technique ancestrale et rudimentaire de la céramique montée au colombin. Elle a réussi à parfaire cette discipline de telle sorte qu'elle put empiler l'argile avec beaucoup de finesse et de légèreté. Son utilisation du décor était poétique, dépeignant des motifs de fleurs et d'herbes de prairie. Del Pierre se tourne vers la céramique à 31 ans alors qu'elle est secrétaire de rédaction d'un journal. Elle passe son été dans le Sud de la France où elle rencontre un fabricant de santons, et a la révélation de travailler l'argile. Elle décide de vivre avec deux jeunes étudiants, Albert Diato et Gilbert Portanier, et de s'installer dans un atelier à Vallauris. Ils y fondent l'atelier 'Le Triptyque'. Finalement, le groupe se sépare. Francine retourne à Paris où elle rencontre Fance Franck et les deux ne se quitteront plus. Au début des années 1960, Del Pierre s'installe dans un atelier situé rue Bonaparte à Paris. Après avoir rencontré Bernard Leach, elle s'intéresse à l'Asie, car il lui fait découvrir les enseignements du très influent Trésor National Vivant Japonais, le maître potier Shoji Hamada, qui suggère que la véritable voie se trouve dans le travail solitaire dans l'atelier. Shoji Hamada était le chef de file d'une nouvelle vague de 'poterie d'atelier' fondée par Bernard Leach, avançant l'idée que la céramique était devenue trop industrialisée, ses résultats qualitatifs et esthétiques étant parfois discutables. Leach était un défenseur de la grande tradition de la céramique japonaise et chinoise, dont le fondement reposait sur l'idée de l'artiste absolu, à la fois designer et producteur, artisan et créateur. 

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