1890’s Art Nouveau Faience Bust by Edmond Lachenal & Horace Daillion
Large female bust rendered in faience by the French Art Nouveau era ceramist Edmond Lachenal in his famed “mat email veloute’ ” glaze and modeled by the artist Horace Daillion. Signed on the right rear Lachenal, as well as H. Dial lion on the left. Limited production estimated at 2-5 exemplars in faience w/ monochromatic glaze. No other examples of this bust are known on the internet. Dimensions: 13”x10”x7”
Daillion and Lachenal formed a collaborative relationship to reproduce the work in ceramic in very low numbers. At the turn of the century, Lachenal had a reputation for the finest in ceramic modeling and glaze characteristics, and he produced ceramic sculptural pieces for Auguste Rodin (1895), Daillion (this piece, 1895), Agnes de Frumerie (1896-1906), Ferdinand Faivre (1897), Luca Madrassi (1894) and Max Blondat (1904).
Edmond Lachenal (1855-1948) was a painter, sculptor, actor, and draftsman, but he was above all the most remarkable of the French Art Nouveau era ceramists. He worked for ten years for Théodore Deck and quickly rose to be head of his studio before striking out on his own in the Paris suburbs in 1880. His first ceramics were in the Iznik style, but from 1890 he turned to stoneware, then glazed stoneware, with a pronounced taste for Japanese forms and decors. It was his development and application of glazes, for which he is most famous. His “mat email veloute’ “ glaze was produced by a hydroflouric acid bath, which removed the glossy aspects of a standard glaze and rendered the surface texture soft and etheral and in many ways more elegant than the matte type glazes applied prior to firing and popular in the Arts & Crafts movement. Most of this biographical information is copied from Collectors Weekly.