Large Vase By Jean Van Dongen (1883 - 1970)

Large terracotta vase with polychrome decorations of sailboats on the sea, signed and numbered under the base. Circa 1940.

In the shadow of the famous sculptor Maillol stands out the figure of the practitioner Jean Van Dongen. Born near Rotterdam on November 8, 1883, he arrived in Paris following his brother in 1904. Kees Van Dongen attended the Bateau-Lavoir there in the company of Paul Gauguin, George Daniel de Monfreid and Maurice Denis among other artists. Jean then worked with the ceramist Paco Durio. Jean Van Dongen married on April 28, 1915 to Marie-Louise Esnault, singer at the Montmartre cabaret “Au Lapin agile”. He met Aristide Maillol in 1922 and became his practitioner. He set up his workshop near that of Maillol at the bottom of the hamlet of Montval and settled with his family at Place du Chenil. His collaboration with Maillol leads him to fire his ceramics, to cut blocks of marble, to make casts. Jean Van Dongen's work is particularly inspired by the animal kingdom. He exhibited an entire window at the Salon des Indépendants in 1925 and then at the “La Crémaillère” art gallery. In 1929, he collaborated with Pablo Picasso on the creation of two vases. The art critic Ernest Tisserand wrote of him in July 1929: “Because, sculptor or potter, Jean Van Dongen is above all a ceramist. He sculpts based on fire. He turns his models according to who makes modern life. A born decorator, he wants his decor, however discreet it may be, to stand out clearly against the soft material of his earth. And we place certain fish dishes very high, certain very calm vases where a few threads of metallic black give a truly thrilling life to the beautiful material vitrified by the fire. Its Amazon is also famous, its deer, its snakes, its turtle, its peacocks. But look for its pots and dishes, where the most deserving efforts, the most laudable successes come together.” Jean Van Dongen died in 1970 in Marly-le-Roi. His works are kept at the royal museum Marly-le-Roi / Louveciennes, at the national ceramic museum in Sèvres, at the Picasso museum and in some private collections.