JEAN LERAT (1913-1992) Chalice vase with two small detached handles. Stoneware; surface treated with fine striations. Signed J. J. LERAT towards the base. Circa 1950. Height: 20cm Provenance: Galerie Denis Goudenhooft, Jumièges. Important: This work will be included in the catalog raisonné of the work of Jean and Jacqueline Lerat currently in preparation. JEAN LERAT (1913-1992) Alongside his wife Jacqueline, née Bouvet (1920-2009), Jean Lerat remains one of the major pioneering figures in the revival of French ceramics in the second half of the 20th century. Based in La Borne, before moving to Bourges in 1955, the couple soon developed a body of work that oscillated between figuration and abstraction. Marked by the context of the war, Jean Lerat developed a vast symbolic bestiary. From the 1950s onwards, their forms became simpler, moving towards elementary geometries. Always linked to nature and materials, Jean and Jacqueline see ceramics as a mirror of existence, where gesture, earth and fire bear witness to "the flesh of time".