Selected works

The result of one of Dalpayrat’s many collaborations with sculptors of his time, our panther is a fine example of the naturalistic temperament of his work. The panther motif was created in collaboration with Désiré-Maurice Ferrary (1852-1904). We also know this subject in the form of a vase, an eminently important piece in Dalpayrat’s production, preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in Peter Marino’s collection.

Our panther strikes the same pose as its “sisters” at the Metropolitan Museum, menacing and ready to attack. Dalpayrat and Ferrary sought to capture the essence of the animal, its great expressiveness enhanced by the contrast between the matte glazed stoneware and the glazed terrace in the ceramist’s signature bright colors, notably his famous red.

We know of two other versions, kept in private collections and reproduced in Horst Makus’ book.

Like the Symbolist painters and sculptors, Dalpayrat uses humans, animals, and nature in his compositions. He stands out from many of his colleagues in his desire to give a simple vase meaning, symbolism, and a metaphysical idea, as evidenced by his vases and trinket dishes decorated with animals and plant motifs. Dalpayrat was fascinated by organic forms and the effect of time on living beings and things. These physical consequences became his aesthetic concern, whether in terms of the form or the surface of the objects he designed. The aim was to sublimate the fruits of nature, to show their intrinsic beauty by freezing them under a blood-red glaze dotted with yellow, blue, or anthracite gray spots. The glaze, covering the form with its drips, accidents, and contrasts, formed the decoration of the vase.

While the first revelation of Japanese art for Parisian artists was the print, ceramics was undoubtedly the other most fruitful French enthusiasm, particularly for Dalpayrat. The Parisian collections he visited featured not only pots, but also masks, such as the one exhibited at the Sèvres Museum in 1876. In 1878, again on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition, the craze for Japan became apparent, particularly for stoneware tea ceremony pieces, which inspired Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat to create pieces with plant and animal forms. From the 1890s onwards, ceramists and glassmakers created a new style that broke with the past. Ceramics adopted organic and asymmetrical lines. Firing accidents, flame effects, and glaze drips created abstract decorations that revolutionized the art of fire.

The blood-red enamel is one of Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat’s signature features, so much so that it is often referred to as “Dalpayrat red.” The ceramist, who became famous for his work at the crossroads of Art Nouveau and Far Eastern art, could boast of having unlocked the mystery of this fascinating color, mastered for centuries by the Chinese. He succeeded in obtaining this shade and these flamed effects on a very resistant stoneware, thanks to the oxidation of copper and a perfect mastery of the atmosphere and firing time. Beyond the red, shades of green or lead gray appear, giving the piece depth. This invention was praised on several occasions, notably at the World’s Fairs and the Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts, as well as at the Georges Petit gallery.

The production of artistic stoneware, adored by critics, reached its peak in the late 1890s. Art critic Louis de Fourcaud praised the beauty of the works exhibited at the Salon each year in the Revue des arts décoratifs:

“Mr. Dalpayrat and Mrs. Lesbros exhibited together pots, vases, and jugs in which beautiful blues and purples, together with a red of rare intensity, form what look like uneven fringes or jasper where the bright colors have splashed each other splendidly! ”