Jacques Blin, vase

Jacques BLIN (1920–1995) Vase with a flattened body and truncated conical neck with stylised animal decoration. Engobed earthenware with engraved decoration and oxides. Signed on the reverse. France, circa 1955–1965. Vase of free form with a widely flattened and flared body, resting on a small circular foot and topped with a narrowed truncated conical neck. Two small circular side handles, symmetrically placed at the shoulder, rhythm the silhouette and enhance the plastic dimension of the whole. The surface is entirely animated by an engraved decoration with a point in the engobe, organised in a continuous frieze around the body. This represents several stylised animal figures arranged alternately in a fluid and rhythmic composition. The treatment of the animals, reduced to the essentials by incisive and linear drawing, fully fits within the graphic vocabulary of the artist. The silhouettes, with slender legs and simplified bodies, evoke the characteristic bestiary of BLIN's works where the animal motif occupies a central place. The background is covered with an engobe in nuanced blue-green tones, punctuated by speckled effects and chromatic variations obtained through the use of oxides. The engraved drawing, highlighted in dark brown, stands out with great clarity, creating a subtle contrast between the depth of the background and the fineness of the line. This type of vase, combining a pronounced sculptural form and continuous animal decoration, corresponds to one of the most accomplished expressions of Jacques Blin's production in the 1950s–1960s. The artist develops a unique plastic language here, halfway between drawing, writing, and symbolic narration. Bibliography: Christine Lavenu, Jacques Blin, ceramist and bearer of stories, Paris, 2019; Yvonne Brunhammer, French Ceramics of the 1950s, Office du Livre, 1986; Pierre Staudenmeyer, French Ceramics of the 50s, Norma Éditions, Paris, 2001.