Charles Catteau (26 January 1880,

Douai Douai ( , , ; ; ; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord département in northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe (rive ...

– 20 October 1966,

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

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 manufactu ...

Biography

Born at

, Charles Catteau trained at the National Ceramics School in

Sèvres Sèvres (, ) is a French Communes of France, commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of the Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a populatio ...

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, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Nymphenburg Porcelain Factory, near

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. In December 1906, he moved to

La Louvière La Louvière (; ) is a city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, province of Hainaut, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Boussoit, Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pie ...

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), known as Anna, was a Belgium, Belgian Painting, painter, art collector, and the only female member of the artistic group, Les XX. Born in La Louvière, Saint-Vaast, Hainaut Province, Hai ...

introduced Catteau into the

factory. The two artists had known each other since Munich. Catteau immediately became a member of Anna Boch'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 ( , , ; , 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. Situated o ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Virtual Expo Charles Catteau
Collection of vases by Charles Catteau donated by Claire De Pauw and Marcel Stal
Fondation Charles Catteau

The 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