Jean DERVAL

Jean Derval trained first as graphic designer at the Ecole des Arts Appliqués, rue Dupetit-Thouars in Paris. His vocation for ceramic started when he worked for famous ‘maison’ Christofle. In 1945, he learned how to make ceramics with Camille Gendras  in Maubrou-Pigaglio’s workshop. In 1947, Jean Derval joined his friends Robert Picault and Roger Capron in Vallauris where they created pottery workshop, one year ago. Jean Derval met Picasso  in 1949 in the famous workshop Madoura. He trained with the master during two years. In 1951, he founded his own establishment, Le Portail. Instead of creating a real manufacture, he chose the hard path of unique pieces. Derval propose a directory of domestic pottery, essentially composed of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic inspirations reinterpreted from the lessons of cubism and abstraction. The end of the sixties had shown an evolution of tastes with sandstones with coppery tones. Then Jean Derval shifted toward architectural ceramics with a vison of a sculptor more than a ceramist.