Juliette Derel (1918 - 2007)

French ceramist born in Normandy at the end of the First World War, Juliette Derel studied at the Beaux Arts in Tours. In the early 1950s, she moved to Vallauris and married Jean Rivier. They worked together until their separation in 1961. Vallauris was then the Mecca of art and ceramics, where she frequented Picasso or her nephew Javier Vilato, among others. In this creative effervescence, her work is prolific: often creator of utilitarian pieces (mirror, tableware, vases), she turns more and more to sculptural works, like these candlesticks or coat racks on metal framework.

Settled in Gréolières, a small and quiet village in the French Alps, she continued her art and her remarkable work on enamel and opened her door to a happy few. In her kitchen, built out of ceramic pieces made and fired by her, she liked to discuss art, but also considerations of our time. She died in her village of Gréolières in 2007 in a car accident.

© Formes Utiles, Nov. 2020