Plate
post WWI
Medium
Stoneware
Dimensions
1 5/8 × 8 7/8 in., 1.5 lb. (4.1 × 22.5 cm, 0.7 kg)
Classification
Ceramics-Pottery
Culture
French
Department
Modern and Contemporary Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1922
Accession Number
22.183.3
Art Historical Context
This elegant stoneware plate by French ceramicist André Metthey, in the years following World War I, exemplifies the quiet innovation in early 20th-century European. Measuring just 1 5/8 × 8 7/8 inches and weighing 1.5 pounds, its modest scale suggests it was designed as much for intimate display as practical use, bridging functionality and fine art. Post-WWI France saw a resurgence in ceramics as artists sought solace and renewal amid reconstruction. Metthey's choice of stoneware—a durable, high-fired clay that yields a robust, non-porous body—was significant, allowing for bold forms and sub...