DOI Heft:
No. 56 (November, 1897)
DOI Artikel:Mourey, Gabriel: The potter's art: with especial reference to the work of Auguste Delaherche
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18390#0144
A uguste Delaherche
At that time he was working in Paris, in the
Vaugirard quarter, with earth which he procured
from the Oise ; now, however, he has established
himself in the immediate neighbourhood of Beau-
vais, and set up his ovens there. He spends the
greater part of the year amid this beautiful Picardy
scenery, working steadily and alone, far from the
cliques of Paris and all its petty tendencies. And
every year fresh shapes, fresh patterns, are added
to his collection of works, which now number not
less than eight hundred, every one of them quite
original and individual, and fashioned by his own
hands.
Delaherche impresses one with his strong will,
his untiring patience, and his unerring knowledge
of his art. He has devoted himself to it entirely,
and it is no wonder he has acquired such knowledge
and such skill.
'•The art of pottery," he remarked to me while
showing me over his workshops one lovely day in
late summer, when all the landscape seen through
the windows was flooded in golden light, " the art
of pottery is a jealous art, demanding absolute
fidelity. One must work, and seek and find unceas-
ingly, and finding is most difficult of all, for one's
discoveries must be made wittingly, with intention.
It will not do to leave one's work to chance, as so
many do. We are grappling with a blind power—
fire ; of all the elements perhaps the most powerful
and most formidable, and we have to subdue and
master it, and not let it conquer us. To this
object all the potter's efforts must tend. Despite all
the worker's care, and no matter how deep may be
his knowledge of the processes of all sorts taught
by experience, I defy him, whoever he be, to be
able to know beforehand, at the moment when he
puts his works into the oven, what exact results will
have been obtained when he brings them out again.
Do I mean by this that we are working absolutely
in the dark? Happily this is by no means the
case ; but almost always we meet with results unfore-
seen, surprising, and very often most interesting;
and this is our best school. It behoves us to
make use of the unexpected, for each time the
GLAZED POTTERY
Il6
DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY AUGUSTE DELAHERCHE
At that time he was working in Paris, in the
Vaugirard quarter, with earth which he procured
from the Oise ; now, however, he has established
himself in the immediate neighbourhood of Beau-
vais, and set up his ovens there. He spends the
greater part of the year amid this beautiful Picardy
scenery, working steadily and alone, far from the
cliques of Paris and all its petty tendencies. And
every year fresh shapes, fresh patterns, are added
to his collection of works, which now number not
less than eight hundred, every one of them quite
original and individual, and fashioned by his own
hands.
Delaherche impresses one with his strong will,
his untiring patience, and his unerring knowledge
of his art. He has devoted himself to it entirely,
and it is no wonder he has acquired such knowledge
and such skill.
'•The art of pottery," he remarked to me while
showing me over his workshops one lovely day in
late summer, when all the landscape seen through
the windows was flooded in golden light, " the art
of pottery is a jealous art, demanding absolute
fidelity. One must work, and seek and find unceas-
ingly, and finding is most difficult of all, for one's
discoveries must be made wittingly, with intention.
It will not do to leave one's work to chance, as so
many do. We are grappling with a blind power—
fire ; of all the elements perhaps the most powerful
and most formidable, and we have to subdue and
master it, and not let it conquer us. To this
object all the potter's efforts must tend. Despite all
the worker's care, and no matter how deep may be
his knowledge of the processes of all sorts taught
by experience, I defy him, whoever he be, to be
able to know beforehand, at the moment when he
puts his works into the oven, what exact results will
have been obtained when he brings them out again.
Do I mean by this that we are working absolutely
in the dark? Happily this is by no means the
case ; but almost always we meet with results unfore-
seen, surprising, and very often most interesting;
and this is our best school. It behoves us to
make use of the unexpected, for each time the
GLAZED POTTERY
Il6
DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY AUGUSTE DELAHERCHE