Style Art Nouveau / Ref.13926

Taxile DOAT, Porcelain soliflore, monogrammed “TD”

A French ceramist active in France and the United States, Taxile Doat (1851-1938) worked at the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres from 1877 to 1905. From 1900, he became interested in the organic forms of Art Nouveau and created his own pieces independently of his activities at Sèvres. He was dismissed from the Manufacture in 1905 for failing to comply with the directives of the administrator at the time, Émile Baumgart. These stipulated that a practitioner employed by the Manufacture Nationale could not pursue an independent activity at the same time. Far from being discouraged by this incident, Doat continued to create in his studio at the Villa Kaolin in Sèvres. Inspired by plant forms, particularly gourds and squashes, he continued his creations by exploring new techniques such as the flowing glaze shown in our soliflore. At the end of 1909, Taxile Doat left France for the United States, where he taught ceramics at the People's University of Missouri. He returned to France in 1914 and reestablished his independent practice in Sèvres. There, he produced in a more classical style until his death in 1938.

Our porcelain soliflore offers a sober and visually effective decoration. Similar in shape to a gourd, it features a particularly voluminous rounded body and a tall, narrow neck. It presents a subtle beige-ochre monochrome, green hues, and brownish highlights; the vertical drips accentuate the slender neck. The patina allows for subtle variations in tone and emphasizes the organic appearance of the soliflore. The aesthetics of this object and the chronology of Taxile Doat's life allow us to propose a date between 1900 and 1909.