ÉLISABETH JOULIA (1925-2003) Small bowl on heel. Glazed stoneware. Signed JOULIA towards the base. Height: 5cm - Diameter: 9.5cm Provenance: Former - Former Hélène Valentin Collection, painter and close friend of Élisabeth Joulia. - Galerie Alexis Mostini, Paris. ÉLISABETH JOULIA (1925-2003) Initially trained as a fresco artist, Élisabeth Joulia discovered ceramics with Jean Lerat, before settling in 1949 in La Borne, a major stoneware center of which she would become a leading figure. Rejecting convention, she developed an instinctive and organic practice, based on direct work with clay, modeled exclusively by hand. Her work is rooted in a sensitive abstraction that resonates with nature and the body, often the female form. Through emblematic series - Chestnuts, Hatching, Almonds - she explores the essence of forms and living things. From the 1970s onwards, her volumes gained in breadth and sensuality, then became purer with the introduction of white stoneware. A key figure in post-war ceramics, her work, nourished by spirituality and travel, tends towards the universal.