Yves Saint Laurent Pierre Bergé - Christie's

Maurice Marinot was an exceptional figure – as both
artist and artisan – and arguably the most important
French glass maker of the first half of the 20th
century. Marinot turned his attention to the medium
of glass in 1911. He was fascinated by the character of
molten glass and began to design models that he
then enamelled himself, applying his training as a
painter to this new medium. Working in the Viard
studios, he became ever more closely engaged with
the intrinsic qualities of glass itself and was soon
working at the furnace, and becoming bolder in his
approach. He started to experiment with glass that
showed characteristics that would conventionally be
described as imperfections; he decided to exploit to
his artistic ends such features as random bubbles
that would normally have been reason to reject a
work in progress.
From 1922 he abandoned surface decoration to
concentrate exclusively on the potential of the
vitreous mass. He trapped colours between thick
layers of glass, mastered the control of flights of
air bubbles, and etched deep into the surface with
acid to achieve an effect of rough-hewn ice. The
vessels that bear his signature – vases and most
frequently flacons with tiny stoppers – were
entirely his own creations, from the design and
chemical research to the furnace and finishing
stages. An idea could take up to a year of
experiment and effort before he was satisfied with
the eventual result. Each survivor of his
challenging procedures was unique. By the time of
the Exposition Internationale of 1925 Marinot had
won international recognition for his innovative
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Maurice Marinot
approach to the medium, less interested in the
superficially decorative, focused rather on
capturing and expressing the inherent magic and
phenomena of the glass itself. He had many
followers, including individuals such as André
Thuret and also major commercial firms like
Daum who adapted certain of his ideas and effects.
Poor health and the closure in 1937 of the Viard
glassworks marked the end of his work with glass.
His influence on the development of studio glass
has been considerable. André Derain commented
respectfully: ‘I have never seen anything as
beautiful which was at the same time so precious
and so simple.’
P. de S.
Maurice Marinot at work, from a documentary film by Jean-Benoît Lévy and René Chavance
opposite page: MAURICE MARINOT (1882–1960)
The collection of flacons, 1923–28, 6 1 ⁄2 in. (16.5 cm.) max height