Charlotte Chauchet exceptional vase

Charlotte CHAUCHET & PRIMAVERA - PARIS
Ceramic baluster vase with flared neck hemmed on a small ring heel, created circa 1916. The body is sinisterly decorated with a landscape in green, yellow and blue enamels on a brown ground, a double frieze of striations and six small handles applied to the shoulder (tiny bubbles and firing cracks). Recessed maker's mark on reverse. Height: 50 cm - Diam (max): 32 cm History: As early as 1912, Charlotte Chauchet took part in the creation of the Primavera workshops alongside her husband René Guilleré, founder of the Société des Artistes Décorateurs, and the Laguionie family, owners of the Printemps department stores. A painter and designer, she became the main collaborator of the structure between 1913 and 1918, for which she created numerous pieces, notably in ceramics. She was the company's artistic director from 1922 to 1937. The model of our vase is reproduced on the first advertising leaflet produced for Primavera, which was inserted in Blanc's 1916 catalog.

Charlotte Chauchet-Guilleré, born December 5, 1878 in Charleville (Ardennes) and died March 13, 1964 in Paris, was a French artist. She worked as a painter and then devoted herself to the decorative arts, both as a designer and as a contributor to better public exposure and understanding of Art Deco.

.

Charlotte Stéphanie Henriette Chauchet was born in December 1878 in Charleville (Ardennes) to Léon Prosper Chauchet, a brewer, then aged 22, born in Raucourt (Ardennes), and his wife Louise Amélie Henriette Michon, aged 19. Léon Prosper Chauchet was of the same generation as Arthur Rimbaud and Ernest Delahaye: "Nous nous grisâmes-z-un jour royalement ensemble" wrote Ernest Delahaye1. Her parents lived on rue d'Aubilly, a stone's throw from Place Ducale2.
After studying in the Ardennes, she went on to Paris, where she benefited from the teachings of Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. One of her paintings, Marée, was exhibited at the Salon des artistes français, and she received an honorable mention in 1901, a medal in 1902, and a travel grant in 19043. The French State acquired three of her works in 1901, 1904 and 1906: Intérieur de cuisine. Intimité and Fillette à la pomme. The Musée de Charleville also selected her and acquired four paintings for its collections3,4.
On March 17, 1906, in Paris2, she married a lawyer, René Guilleré, art and music lover, collector of traditional African art, poet, playwright, contributor to various magazines, and founding member, in 1901, of the Société des artistes décorateurs (S.A.D.) of which he was secretary general3. At 13 rue Eugénie Gérard in Vincennes, they built a brick and slate house with an unostentatious yet singularly elegant facade5. While continuing her work as a painter, Charlotte Chauchet-Guilleré became an active member of this society. She exhibited decorative panels at the Salon d'Automne from 1910 to 1913, and at the Salon des Indépendants from 1911 to 19133. At the same time, Hector Guimard commissioned her to paint a fresco in the dining room of the Hôtel Mezzara (1910-1911).
From 1909 onwards, with René Guilleré and the support of the Laguionie family, she was entrusted by the management of Printemps with the creation of a decorative arts department in these department stores. In January 1913, still within Printemps, they extended this first step by launching a new structure, Primavera, again devoted to furniture and decorative arts3. These were Ateliers d'art, with manufacturing facilities in the suburbs and provinces, in addition to the solicitation of craftsmen, exclusive models, designers and a specific exhibition space in the store. Work in wood, fabric, glass, paper and ceramics6. Ceramic objects that meet with rapid success7. This Primavera structure brought modern furniture and decorative objects to the general public, blurring the boundaries between art, craft and mass retail8. At a time when critics were still sulking over Cubism and its masters, Juan Gris, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, René Guilleré and Charlotte Chauchet-Guilleré drew inspiration from their works, then turned to other sources when geometric furniture invaded the market6. Their collections are part of the Art Deco movement. René Guilleré was Primavera's first director. Charlotte Chauchet-Guilleré was artistic director from 1922 to 1937. Other department stores copied the formula: for example, Galeries Lafayette asked Maurice Dufrêne to run the Maîtrise, and Paul Follot animated the Maîtrise.

Ref: 8VJ9X6WIFM