Jean Marais, Enameled And Signed Stoneware Pot, 1960s.

Height 11 cm, Diameter: 20 cm. Good condition. Jean Marais potter: To occupy his leisure time, Jean Marais decided to make pottery, with a brand new kiln in the workshop of his new home. In Vallauris, he came to place an order for two hundred kilos of clay and had a chance meeting, on June 6, 1973, with Nini Pasquali (1927-2018) and her husband Jo, a potter in this town, near Cannes. His life was about to change. What followed was a very beautiful friendship, an absolute trust that lasted 25 years, until the artist's death. The couple took the actor under their wing. Jo helped him better master his art by teaching him how to shoot. This is also the origin of a joke: when people asked him why he no longer shot (in cinema), he replied: "I've never shot so much in my life!" "For hours at his wheel, guided by Jo, he discovered new techniques. From pottery, he moved on to modeling, and from modeling to sculpture, it was only a small step. In 1975, he opened his first gallery in Vallauris with the help of Jo and his wife, Nini. "I am a craftsman, not an artist. Art attracts me, fascinates me. I like to get close to it, I respect the artist, I love him, I would like to be like him. But I place too high a value on art to consider myself an artist," he declared to Gilles Durieux, author of a biography of the actor. To someone who admired his painting skills too much and called him a master, he replied: "Master, no. Six foot four, all right," because, he said: "I never considered myself an artist. Just a craftsman, and especially an old kid having fun." In 1976, he also opened a second gallery in Paris, where he sold his pottery and paintings, at 91, rue Saint-Honoré, under the name Jean Marais, potter.