Paul Jeanneney
Paul Jeanneney (shown in his studio) began as an early collector of Asian ceramics. Indeed, it was partly his collection that inspired Jean Carriès to become a ceramist. At the same time, Carriès's Japonist ceramics inspired Jeanneney to become a ceramist. Jeanneney's work closely resembles Japanese prototypes. Many vases rely on the concentric rings caused by the rotating pottery wheel to alternately capture and shed dripping glazes. Others seem to be diagonally raked or lightly twisted. A contrasting glaze often appears at the rim and flows spontaneously over the shoulders.
Paul Jeanneney (born in Strasbourg as Paul Cyprien Loewenguth) was a talented ceramist, sculptor and, perhaps most important for the French pottery revolution, a noted collector of Asian ceramics. In 1885, he was listed as an "Ingénieur des Arts et Manufactures" (engineer in Art and Manufacturing) and lived in the Cité Fleurie (Paris's artists' district) surrounded by a number of shops selling items from the Far East. He attended local art classes and became a friend of sculptor Jean Carriès, who lived nearby.
Jeanneney's ceramics fall into two general categories. Some closely resemble Japanese prototypes, for example the double gourd-form vases whose pinched sides intentionally imitate the random deformations so admired by the Japanese in their own wares. A second group draws upon Japanese sources, but is strongly inflected by Jeanneney's personal style. These pieces include the iconic "chaire," or tea caddy, to which Jeanneney applied trompe l'oeil fungi. His stoneware masks, some of which depict twisted features, may have been inspired by the grimacing faces of Gothic gargoyles or by Japanese Noh theater masks.
In 1898, four years after Jean Carriès's death, Jeanneney bought Carriès's former home and studio, Château de Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye, from Georges Hoentschel. Once established in the Puisaye area, he rarely traveled to Paris and when he did, it was mostly on business.
Jeanneney, who lived until 1920, continued to create distinctive Japonist stoneware long after Carriès's death 26 years earlier. His ceramics legacy and Carriès's will remain forever intertwined as creators, teachers, and promoters of revolutionary art and artists.
