Large Gavotte In Pont-aven By Robert Micheau-vernez - Manufacture Henriot - Brittany

Henriot Manufacture. Polychrome earthenware, titled "Gavotenn Vras" which means "Grande Gavotte". Around 1940. Height 33 cm, width 38 cm.

Model initially planned for the Brittany pavilion at the 1937 Universal Exhibition in Paris, but unfortunately following a delay the piece will not appear in the selection.

Robert Micheau-Vernez (1907-1989) is the son of a naval officer, he studied at the Saint-Louis college in Brest where he took evening classes at the School of Fine Arts in the company of the painter Charles Lautrou. From October 1926 to June 1928, he followed courses at the Regional School of Fine Arts of Nantes in the studio of the painter Emile Simon, where he obtained a medal in June 1927. Then he was admitted to the school of Fine arts of Paris in the studio of the painter Lucien Simon. His course continued until June 1930. At the same time he enrolled in Maurice Denis' sacred art workshops. In December 1932, he married Lysa-Mina Vernez, herself a medalist at the Beaux-Arts de Nantes in June 1929. It was under the double surname of “Micheau-Vernez” that he henceforth signed his works. In 1930, René-Yves Creston asked him to join the Seiz-Breur movement, which aimed to create contemporary Breton art. He joined out of solidarity, but participated little in their activities and resigned in June 1946. In November 1930, at the Galerie Saluden in Brest, he exhibited eighteen earthenware pieces, including thirteen plates in collaboration with the Faïencerie Henriot de Quimper. The immediate success accredits a thirty-year collaboration with the earthenware industry, with the creation of one hundred and forty sculptures including a few dishes. His earthenware works marked the celebrity of Micheau-Vernez. Quickly becoming the brand image of the Faïenceries Henriot de Quimper, his works appear on the covers of the earthenware catalogs. This situation completely obscures his pictorial work. We can see a large decorative panel on earthenware tiles, created in 1950, in the hall of the Quimper SNCF station. A large piece representing a bigoudène in ancient costume was offered to General De Gaulle by the inhabitants of the island of Sein, during his visit on June 12, 1949. It will be installed in his office until 1958. The art critic André Parinaud, director of the monthly Galerie des Arts, writes of him: "There is little existence more discreet, more secret in simplicity than that of this artist and work more dazzling with color, sunshine and youth. "former student of Maurice Denis has learned the lesson of the Nabis, the intangible purity of the artistic gesture, the modesty for all approach".