Juliette Derel

Juliette Derel, born in Normandy, France, in 1918 was a distinguished French ceramicist whose career championed artistic integrity over commercial production. After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Tours from 1937 and completing ceramic training in 1939, she exhibited at the Salon de l'Imagerie in Paris by 1942. Relocating to Vallauris in 1951, she initially produced popular culinary pieces before evolving toward innovative unique works described as sometimes surrealist, sometimes brutalist in character. Shortly after her marriage to ceramicist Jean Rivier in 1953, both artists had international success with exhibitions across Europe, America, and beyond, though they separated in 1959. Derel notably resisted the mass-production trend that dominated post-war Vallauris, joining the artistic revolt led by Jean Derval that protested commercial casting in favor of unique artistic creation. Leaving Vallauris in 1964 for Saint-Paul-de-Vence, she befriended major artists including Picasso, Chagall, and Cocteau.

The present group of mirrors is a rare large collection of 18 mirrors by Derel, and as well as including three works by her former husband Jean Rivier, and one mirror by Alexandre Kostanda, a fellow Vallauris ceramicist.