Jean Derval

Jean Derval is a French ceramist. A graduate of the School of Applied Arts in Paris as a graphic designer and poster designer, Jean Derval pursued his vocation for ceramics following the creation of stoneware services for the goldsmith house Christofle.
It was during his stay in the Maubrou-Pigaglio workshop in 1945 that he learned the trade of ceramist by learning various techniques and turning.
The artist joined his comrades Robert Picault and Roger Capron in 1947 in Vallauris and entered the famous Madoura workshop in 1949 where he worked alongside the Andalusian master for two years.
It was in 1951 that Jean Derval chose the difficult path of the “unique piece” after founding his own workshop “Le Portail”.
By reinterpreting lessons from cubism and abstraction, the artist then offers a vast repertoire of domestic pottery of mainly anthropomorphic and zoomorphic inspiration, but also religious subjects that his Christian fervor pushes him to treat, leaving all the same a important place in Greek mythology which echoes its Mediterranean roots.
The end of the 1960s was marked by a shift in taste towards sandstones with austere hues, at the expense of the colored earthenware favored by Jean Derval, who moved towards architectural ceramics at the end of the 1960s and created his works with a vision of sculptor.