19th C. Stoneware Crab Inkwell by Edmond Lachenal

One of France’s most influential ceramists, Edmond Lachenal contributed significantly to the development of Art Nouveau. His poor beginnings in Paris led to an apprenticeship at age 12 with a local potter. In 1870, he began working in the studio of the leading ceramist, Theodore Deck. Lachenal was a quick study and by 1873, he had demonstrated considerable talent to be appointed Director of Decoration in Deck’s studio as well as receiving an Honorable Mention at the World’s Fair in Vienna. By 1881 Lachenal had opened his studio with his wife and fellow ceramist, Anne Le Cloarec, in Paris Auteuil neighborhood where there was a high concentration of ceramic production and artistic exchange. He subsequently moved his studio production outside of Paris; however, his impact on the artistic capital only increased with time. He won gold medals there in 1889 and 1900 at the Expositions Universelle. By the early-1900s, large exhibitions of his work were held at the Österreichisches Museum fur Angewandte Kunst in Vienna and Munich and Louis Majerelle’s new Paris showrooms at the former site of Bing’s Maison de l’Art Nouveau. It was his breadth and range that set him apart from other contemporary artists working in the field. He worked in faience and stoneware, and he collaborated with sculptors to produce ceramic versions of their work. His oeuvre included applied experimental decorative ceramic styles as well as masterful sculpted organic models which reflected the evolving trend of Japonisme. Lachenal’s creative solutions of utilizing hydrofluoric acid to remove the outer layer of glazes to create a velvety matte finish became his hallmark email mat veloute. As a harbinger and master of the Art Nouveau style, Lachenal’s ceramic work moved french ceramics from an appreciative replication of the natural world influenced by the arts from Japan to a fully actualized aesthetic in which artistic process and form expressed these higher laws found in nature. Lachenal leaves an incredible legacy.