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Mid-century French Ceramic Pitcher by Naumovitch - Grand Chêne Studio, Vallauris

About the Item

Mid-century French Ceramic Pitcher by Naumovitch - Grand Chêne Studio, Vallauris Original piece, the pitcher is enamelled on the upper part and left rough on the lower part. The enamel is brown, slightly mauve, decorated with bluish dots and brick red circles. The lower part is painted with black lines. The jug is in very good condition. The trademark, stylized oak leaf is on the underside along with their pottery's town, Vallauris. In 1948, the couple Odette Gourju and Ljuba Naumovitch acquired the workshop Le Grand Chêne. Near the big oak tree, chemin du Fournas where Robert Picault also established his workshop, they settled in this village known for its ceramics and boomed in the 1950s by the arrival of Pablo Picasso who now also worked in pottery. While they produced utilitarian ceramics with white and striped backgrounds, they also created more artistic pieces with decorations of fauna, flowers, birds and women, reminding us that the couple had trained as painters at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Both Odette and Lujba found inspiration in the work of Giorgo De Chirico and Henri Matisse. Their son Jacques Innocenti (1926-1958) took over the studio and enlarged it with the help of his companion Nydia. They created works of great beauty. The ceramist Juliette Derel worked in the studio until 1951.