Glazed Ceramic Vase by René Buthaud

Glazed ceramic vase by René Buthaud depicting nude dancers. Glazed signature to underside ‘RB’. France: circa 1935 Literature: Céramiques de René Buthaud, Buthaud and Du Pasquier, pg. 130 Provenance: Collection of Seymour Stein. Following a brief stint as an engraver for the French army during WWI, he returned to Bordeaux where his artist friends Jean Dupas and Roger Bissière encouraged him to try his hand at ceramics. In 1919 and 1920 he exhibited his new wares at the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs in Paris, where his work achieved critical acclaim. Among his buyers was the famed artist Jean Dunand, who was so impressed by Buthaud’s work that he nominated him for the first Florence Blumenthal Prize, which went to Buthaud in 1921. He settled in Bordeaux in 1925, where he would spend his entire life in continual experimentation and growth, branching out further into ceramics and eventually working with glass as well. The subsequent decades were filled with a multitude of achievements including: jurying the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in 1925, directing the Primavera Pottery from 1923 through 1926, exhibiting at galleries Druet and George Rouard, becoming a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1937, an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1983, and receiving the French National Order of Merit in 1986, mere months before his death. He left behind an enormous and impressive body of work encompassing drawings, paintings, verre églomisé panels, and ceramics, all bearing the hallmarks of his unique style: a combination of classicism and modernism with dashes of Cubism, the Italian Renaissance, and influences of the African tribal art he collected.

height

9 in.

diameter

5.5 in.

condition

Good overall general condition

Circa 1935