Large bowl, Jean Cocteau, Orphée et Eurydice, green (GREEN)

French poet, illustrator, painter, playwright and film-maker, Jean Cocteau was one of the most important artists of the 20th century. "Pottery has saved my life! That spared me the use of ink which is too dangerous, since all that we write is systematically distorsed by those who read it." Jean Cocteau was an all-round artist, and became interested in ceramics between 1957 and 1963, in the studio of Madeleine Jolly and Philippe Madeline in Villefranche-sur-Mer where he created more than 300 pieces of earthenware. "Proud to have become an artisan-ceramist", he created pieces with clean and graphic lines, true to the style of his drawings. He used his favourite motifs, with mythical and magical inspirations: tragic mythological heroes, fantastic plants, and angels and fairy-tale characters embody the poet's brilliant and vivid imagination. In 1983 Raynaud works with Seta Aubusson to produce 250 copies of three motifs taken from Jean Cocteau's ceramic universe on dishes in a pale-pink clay body. Thirty-five years later, still fascinated by the ceramicist, Raynaud is presenting a complete new collection directly inspired by the works created by Jean Cocteau in the 1950s.