DERVAL Jean

Jean Derval first received an artistic education as a graphic designer and poster artist at the École des Arts Appliqués on rue Dupetit-Thouars in Paris. His vocation for ceramics came to him by chance while creating stoneware services for the Christofle goldsmith house. In 1945, during his stay in Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye, he learned the trade of ceramist in the Maubrou-Pigaglio workshop, notably with Camille Gendras. In 1947, Jean Derval joined his comrades Robert Picault and Roger Capron in Vallauris where they had created a pottery workshop the previous year. The elegant world of amateurs and artists met at that time on the Côte d’Azur around Picasso. Jean Derval joined the famous Madoura workshop in 1949, where he rubbed shoulders with the Andalusian master for two years. In 1951, he founded his own establishment, Le Portail. Instead of creating a real factory, he chose the difficult path of “unique pieces”. Derval offers a repertoire of domestic pottery, mainly of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic inspiration, reinterpreted from the lessons of cubism and abstraction. The end of the 1960s was marked by a change in taste towards stoneware with muted and coppery hues. Jean Derval then moved towards architectural ceramics with a vision of a sculptor rather than a potter.