Roland Blaettler, 2019
Pottery decorated by Georges Vallotton in the image database
According to the obituaries for Georges Vallotton (1870-1948) in the Feuille d’avis de Lausanne dated 16th February 1948 (p. 24) and in the Gazette de Lausanne dated 17th February 1948 (p. 2), he studied at the School of Arts and Design in Karlsruhe before earning a certificate to teach arts in Geneva in 1899. He is known to have been interested in faience painting from as early as 1900. On 31st August 1900, the Gazette de Lausanne (p. 3) published a piece about a remarkable work by Vallotton which was on display in a shop window in Lausanne: a ceramic triptych (with faience painting). It depicted a chapter in Swiss history, the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs in 1444. The first panel showed the prayers before the battle, the second a depiction of the battle itself and the third the main characters after the event. The journalist’s comments were very encouraging: “The painting style is full of life, the turbulent scenes are lifelike, and the confident drawing style has qualities that show promise for the future. There could not have been a better start to this career.”
Later – while still working as an arts teacher in Lausanne – Vallotton came into contact with Jules Michaud, the director of the Nyon Pottery Manufactory: “After much research and with the prudent advice of Monsieur Michaud, the director of the Nyon Pottery Manufactory, he has managed to perfect his craft and firing technique to such an extent that has allowed him to offer his audience a whole range of beautiful works of art and decorative objects, some of which can currently be admired in the shop window of the Wenger company in the Saint-François area” (Tribune de Lausanne, 17th December 1905, p. 2). The Gazette de Lausanne dated 14th December 1905 (p. 3) provided a detailed report on the exhibition in Lausanne mentioning “two or three dozen bowls, plates, medallions, small bowls and saucers”. The motifs depicted were either influenced by historicising iconography (standard bearers, lansquenets, pipers or lancers) or show landscape scenes. Examples mentioned in the report include the tower on Rue du Pré in Chillon, Palud square in Lausanne and a “bird’s eye view of the tower of Marsens”. The latter could be the motif on the bowl that is now in the collection of the Historical Museum in Lausanne (MHL AA.VL 91 C 1033A). The journalist also points out that “Delftware blue, while reminding us of the beautiful products from the land of the grachten, is ideally suited for the reproduction of the delightful details of our old local architecture”.
The view of the tower of Marsens was not the only motif that Vallotton chose to depict in a monochrome bluish grey (see MHL AA.VL 91 C 1033B, MHL AA.VL 88 C 470 or MHPN MH-1999-116). It is tempting to date this series of works to the period around 1905, but Vallotton did, in fact, use the technique until at least 1915, as we can see from a brief report about another exhibition of his works again in the shop windows of the company Wenger in Lausanne (Gazette de Lausanne dated 28th December 1915, p. 5). The report tells us that “Vallotton, who is not at all interested in simply copying other styles but is intent on fighting against imports from abroad, likes to paint views of Lake Geneva, of Swiss chalets and of our mountains; the blurry blue of the pottery is ideally suited to capturing these faraway landscapes”.
All ceramic objects from the early period were made of refined white earthenware almost certainly sourced from Jules Michaud’s Nyon Manufactory, where the objects were fired at a high temperature after Vallotton applied the colours under the glaze. He signed all his works with his monogram (see for instance MHL AA.VL 88 C 470, MHPN MH-FA-4042).
The medallions mentioned in the 1905 report were made using an old mould stored at the Nyon Porcelain Factory. The National Museum in Zurich has a specimen signed by Vallotton which shows a woman wearing a costume from the Vaud region picking grapes (Inv. LM-141824). The same collection includes another object made by Vallotton, a tray made using an old porcelain mould which shows a farming couple wearing traditional costume (Inv. LM-141825).
The Nyon Museum has another medallion of the same shape with a depiction of a lansquenet leaning on his sword. The motif is signed “A. Veillon” (MHPN MH-2000-81). Was this an independent pottery painter or did he work for Vallotton? The report in the Gazette de Lausanne about the 1905 exhibition praises Vallotton’s work and stresses that it “has created employment for a number of workers trained by him. It seems that they are already forming a ‘school’ and are a credit to both their master and our city”. This shows that Vallotton surrounded himself with coworkers from very early on, though we have not been able to find any information about the division of labour between the master and his students/coworkers.
Following the success of his Lausanne exhibition, Vallotton began to dream about a project which would keep him busy for many years to come. In an article published in the Feuille d’avis de Lausanne on 12th January 1906 (p. 4), he declared that he would “work towards setting up a pottery-making enterprise whose workshops would be in Nyon, as agreed with Monsieur Michaud”.
He first tried to make his dream become a reality, albeit just on a temporary basis, in Geneva: “Monsieur Georges Vallotton, an artist from Lausanne, is attempting to revive a national industry which has been all but forgotten: faience studio pottery. He has set up a workshop in Geneva, and has employed young graduates from the Geneva School of Art. An exhibition of objects from his workshops, which he himself curated, was very successful” (Feuille d’avis de Lausanne dated 14th December 1906, 8). That year, Vallotton won a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Milan, where he was described as a professor in Geneva (Schweizerisches Handelsamtsblatt (Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce), vol. 25, 1907, p. IV).
In January 1907, Vallotton informed the city authorities of Nyon that he intended to “set up an enterprise in the field of studio pottery”, which would comprise workshops and a drawing school. The declared goal, he stated, was to train young men and women in the art of faience painting. From the beginning, he asked for favourable treatment, including being exempt from council taxes for at least five years, allocation of between 1500 and 2000 m2 of land near the manufactory and an annual subsidy of 2500 Swiss francs (Archives communales de Nyon [ACN, Communal Archives of Nyon], Bleu A-70, meeting on 21st January 1907). Surprisingly, the city council was in favour of the enterprise in principle. However, they did a complete about-turn when they forwarded the submission to Jules Michaud, who thought it would be unwise to take a financial share in a project which, given how difficult it was to sell products of this kind in the region, had very little hope of turning a profit. Almost as an aside the record mentions that Vallotton was, in fact, firing his pottery in the kilns of the Nyon Pottery Manufactory. The council ultimately decided against granting Vallotton’s request (ibid., meeting on 2nd April).
A few years later, in 1914, Vallotton was offered a position as an arts teacher at the secondary and vocational school in Nyon; he was given a provisional licence to teach Sekundarstufe II, a higher level of secondary education until he passed the necessary supplementary exams in 1917 (ACN, Bleu A-75). Also in 1917, he set up his first workshop for pottery painting on faience and porcelain as a limited partnership “Georges Vallotton et Cie” (La Revue dated 1st November 1919, 3 – Tribune de Lausanne dated 17th February 1948, 5). He registered his maker’s mark which consisted of his monogram “GV” flanked by two “N”s (SOGC, vol. 36, 1918, 5 – for examples of the impressed mark see MHL AA.46.B.57; CLS MURO 1236). In 1919, the Indicateur Vaudois listed the workshop at 3 Rue du Cordon, and in 1920 at 17 Rue de la Poterie. The move was prompted by a tragic incident which occurred on 27th November 1919: newspaper reports from the next day stated that a fire caused by the kiln exploding had destroyed the building of “Monsieur Vallotton, potter in Nyon” (Le Droit du peuple dated 28th November 1919, 4).
Before this dramatic event, on 9th December 1918, the city authorities had received a letter from the company “G. Vallotton et Cie, decorated porcelain manufacturer” which bemoaned the difficulties that had arisen in its line of business due to the grave shortage of qualified workers. The letter proposed the setting up of a school, supported by the municipality but affiliated with the company, with the aim of “preparing apprentices”. To this end the company applied for an annual bursary of 1200 Swiss francs (ACN, Bleu-77, meeting on 9th December 1918). In February 1919, the Gazette de Lausanne picked up on the project and very encouragingly praised the company’s commitment to the revival of the local pottery-making tradition. It described the training that Vallotton was planning on providing, which would “open up a path, particularly for girls, which will appeal to them and allow them to earn a living” (issue dated 9th February 1919, p. 2). The article also mentioned that the school, which was to be built in the following spring, was planned as an annex to Vallotton’s manufactory, where the students would not only learn decorative drawing techniques and picture composition but also receive basic technical training in the craft. It would be a four-month course followed by practical training in the factory, “during which time the students will receive remuneration. It is not the aim of Monsieur Vallotton to train amateurs but specialist craftspeople who can work either at a workshop or at home.”
A short while later it was announced in the media that the “École de peinture sur porcelain” (School of Porcelain Painting) would begin offering courses in May and they would cover “decorative painting on faience, porcelain and possibly glass” as well as “decorative picture composition for industrial use” (for example in the Gazette de Lausanne dated 20th March 1919, 3). In April 1919, the council gave a positive response to Vallotton’s application (ACN, Bleu-77, meeting on 7th April 1919).
On 20th January 1920, the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (vol. 38, 1920, 200) announced the founding of the “Manufacture de porcelaines décorées de Nyon S. A.” with a share capital of 150,000 Swiss francs. The object of the company was to acquire the assets of “G. Vallotton et Cie” and to “manufacture, decorate and sell porcelain, faience, glassware, various types of pottery and other ceramic products or similar”. Besides Vallotton, the board of directors, which was chaired by Eugène Failletaz, a manager from Lausanne, included Arnold Schenk, a businessman from Rolle, Alfred Baup, a banker from Nyon, Georges Seidl-Binet, a pensioner from Lausanne, Alfred Rochat, a dyer from Lausanne and Ernest Bonzon, a notary from Nyon. Management of the company, of course, was retained by Vallotton.
The new company name was listed in the Indicateur vaudois from 1921, with its headquarters at 17 Rue de la Poterie, while in 1922 and 1923, a retail outlet was listed at 6 Rue de la Gare. The workshop mark remained the same as it had been under the previous company name: “N-GV-N”.
Vallotton’s business was ambivalent, to put it mildly, and was a strange (or perhaps calculated?) mix between a purely commercial enterprise (the factory) and a supposedly educational and public-welfare institution (the school). This lack of clarity created difficulties for Vallotton during his repeated attempts to secure more comprehensive funding from the public coffers. In the spring of 1920, the town authorities were informed that the cantonal government had refused to subsidise Vallotton’s drawing school citing the lack of separation between the school and the production halls. Vallotton subsequently threatened to move his enterprise elsewhere (ACN, Bleu A-77, meeting on 12th April 1920).
A few months later, Vallotton wrote a letter to the communal authorities stating that the school would now be subsidised not only by the canton but also by the federal government. The council decided to summon the director to attend a meeting (ACN, Bleu A-78, meeting on 26th July 1920). Because the “Professional School of Porcelain Painting” was still “temporarily” being housed on the premises of the factory on Rue de la Poterie (ACN, Bleu A-78, meeting on 22nd November 1920), Vallotton repeatedly asked the town council to find a bigger premises for it.
In June 1921, the applicant was asked for precise student numbers. The answer he provided was not particularly encouraging. In the second year, five students had completed their training, four of whom were now employed by the Manufacture de porcelaines décorées; in the first year, two students had been enrolled, while four had purportedly been on a waiting list due to a lack of space (ibid. meeting on 27th June). In December of that year, the town council finally rejected the option of taking over the running of the school (ibid. meeting on 12th December 1921).
Vallotton’s business got into more and more difficulty; in 1920, his Manufacture de porcelaines décorées recorded a loss of 27,719 francs, and in 1921 as much as 44,743 francs (ACN, Bleu A-79, meeting on 8th May 1922). In January 1922 he ran several advertisements informing customers about sales by inventory and “offering goods at attractive prices to business people and private individuals, including tableware, tea and coffee sets; white Wedgwood faience ware; large amounts of white porcelain etc.” (for example in the Gazette de Lausanne dated 23rd January 1922, 3). Some of the notices even mentioned 1st March 1923 as the date when the business would officially close (Gazette de Lausanne, 8th November 1922, 3).
On 11th January 1923, the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce announced the closure of the company “Manufacture de porcelaines décorées S. A.”. The final decision was made at an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders on 20th September 1922. “With the exception of Georges Vallotton, who has resigned” (vol. 41, 1923, p. 119), the board of directors would take on the task of liquidating the company. It was not until 24th September 1923 that the town council registered the closure of the company, which had occurred “at the beginning of the year” (ACN, Bleu A-80). Georges Vallotton moved to Lausanne where, from 1924 until his retirement in 1930, he taught drawing and history of art at the vocational school and at the girls’ secondary school. He subsequently published various essays and historical novels under the penname Georges Delorbe.
After 1917, Vallotton’s workshops continued to decorate refined white earthenware, mainly commemorative objects (MHL AA.46.B.57; MHPN MH-FA-4644), but also and increasingly more often white imported porcelain. Some of the motifs were quite unusual but befitted the tastes of the period (MHPN MH-PO-10033; MHPN MH-1999-119); they often revisited the traditional motifs of the old Nyon porcelain, and in those cases the workshop mark was supplemented by a blue fish painted on the glaze (CLS MURO 1234, CLS MURO 1235, CLS MURO 1236).
Translation: Sandy Haemmerle
Sources:
Archives communales de Nyon [ACN], Registres de la Municipalité.
Feuille officielle suisse du commerce (consultée sur le site e-periodica.ch)
Les annuaires et la presse vaudois (consultés sur le site Scriptorium de la Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire de Lausanne).
References:
Blaettler 2017
Roland Blaettler, CERAMICA CH III/1: Vaud (Nationales Inventar der Keramik in den öffentlichen Sammlungen der Schweiz, 1500-1950), Sulgen 2017, 65-67.
