Charles Catteau (26 January 1880, Douai – 20 October 1966,

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

) was a French

Art Déco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

industrial designer Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactur ...

Biography

Born at Douai, Charles Catteau trained at the National Ceramics School in Sèvres and followed a training course at the National Porcelain Factory in the same town. In 1904, Catteau was hired by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Nymphenburg Porcelain Factory The Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory (German: ''Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg'') is located at the ''Nördliche Schloßrondell'' in one of the ''Cavalier Houses'' in front of the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, Germany, and since its establi ...

, near

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. In December 1906, he moved to

La Louvière La Louvière (; wa, El Lovire) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Boussoit, Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pierre, Houdeng-Aimeries, Hou ...

with his small family and started to work for

Boch Frères Keramis Boch may refer to: * Anna Boch (1848–1936), Belgian painter * Cathryn Boch (born 1968), French artist * Ernie Boch, Jr. (born 1958), American businessman * Eugène Boch (1855–1941), Belgian painter * François Boch (1695–1794), a founder of ...

, a Belgian earthenware factory located in

since the 19th century. It is unclear whether

Anna Boch Anna Rosalie Boch (10 February 1848 – 25 February 1936) was a Belgian painter, born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut. Anna Boch died in Ixelles in 1936 and is interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium. Artistic style Boch partici ...

introduced Catteau into the

factory. The two artists had known each other since Munich. Catteau immediately became a member of

's "Kring Der Vrienden Der Schone Kunsten" (= Circle of Friends of The Fine Arts). In 1907, he was appointed head of the Decoration Department and Workshop of Imaginative Design, where he remained until 1948. He died at Nice in 1966. Charles Catteau gathered a group of artists around him, what resulted in an incredible wide variety of designs. He experimented with shapes, material, glazes and textures. Between 1920 and 1940, hundreds of designs were created, and some were produced during many years. Unfortunately, a lot of badly produced pieces left the factory; so, the general perception of a high-quality product lost some of its glamour. At the end, the top pieces made by Catteau often were produced in restricted quantity and were hotly sought after. Many of these pieces ended up in collections in France and the US and in Belgium where they were produced.

Sources

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External links

École nationale supérieure de céramique industrielle
(National Ceramics School),

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Virtual Expo Charles Catteau
Collection of vases by Charles Catteau donated by Claire De Pauw and Marcel Stal
Fondation Charles CatteauThe Charles Catteau’s collection at the King Baudouin’s FoundationRoyal Boch
1880 births 1966 deaths People from Douai French industrial designers Art Deco designers French potters {{Europe-artist-stub