Jacques Innocenti moved to Vallauris in 1949, opening his Poterie du Grand Chêne (“Pottery of the Great Oak”) soon after. Often, as in this vase with elegant sgraffito drawing, he fused figuration with the vessel form. Vallauris, ceramic production center on the Côte d’Azur, is well-known because of Picasso’s collaborations with potters there (beginning in 1948), but many other artists and designers also produced work at Vallauris, reaching a high point of creativity in the 1950s. Much of this work possesses the same formal ease that Picasso’s ceramics do, and also shares his interest in African masks and sculpture.
