Small Trompe-l'oeil Squash

This small pumpkin is typical of the art of Marcel Figuères.

Born in 1928 and deceased in 2017, he spanned the 20th century with the passion and talent of 19th-century ceramists.

Without respite, he sought to dominate the material, its firing and decoration to create virtuoso pieces. After starting his career as a ceramist with the Massier family in Vallauris, he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, where he met his future wife Gilberte, who worked at the St-Jean du Désert earthenware factory, and with whom they set up their own workshop in 1952.

Among the various specialties he explored, Marcel Figuères excelled from the 1980s onwards in the art of naturalistic trompe-l'œil, inspired by sancians such as Bernard Palissy, while researching new materials definition ceramics, even cooperating with NASA. The result was astonishingly realistic pieces, including the fish that made him famous, as well as a wide variety of vegetables and fruit.