Pair of Vases (Translation)
Vases des Pommerets (Primary Title)
Henry Ernest Brécy, French, active at Sèvres, 1880 - 1928 (Decorator)
Alexis-Anatole Fournier, French, 1864 - 1926 and students at the École Guérin (designer of form) (Designer)
Henri Barbéris, French, active at Sèvres, 1897 - 1907 (designer of decoration) (Designer)
Manufacture de Sèvres, French, founded 1740 (Vincennes), relocated 1756 (Sèvres) (Manufacturer)
In 1897 Alexandre Sandier was named director of artworks at the National Manufactory at Sèvres. He hired Alexis- Anatole Fournier and other students and created a “new art” of innovative shapes and novel decoration. Like other Art Nouveau artists at the turn of the 20th century, Sandier and the artists he hired turned to nature for inspiration, using organic shapes as well as decorations based on plants, flowers, and vegetables. The vases here (2016.229.1 and 2016.229.2) are a prime example of Art Nouveau ceramics. The total fusion of the organic shape and vegetal decoration was without precedent at Sèvres. Examples of this model were made for the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. This world’s fair gave Sandier an important opportunity to showcase objects in the new spirit of Art Nouveau.
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