Alexandre Bigot
Encyclopedia
Alexandre Bigot was a French ceramicist. He was primarily a ceramics manufacturer; producing the designs of many artists and architects of the French Art Nouveau
movement; including: Jules Lavirotte
, Hector Guimard
, Louis Majorelle
, Henri Sauvage
, Henry van de Velde
, Auguste Perret
, Andre Arfidson, Anatole de Baudot and more.
Bigot was a physics and chemistry instructor who became interested in ceramics in 1889 after viewing Chinese porcelain at the Exposition Universelle
in Paris. With his knowledge of chemistry, Bigot was able to create glazes with a large variety of colors and finishes.
Bigot's firm was based at Rue des Petites Ecuries, Paris and he also created a ceramics factory in Mer in 1889 which employed as many as 150 people. Samuel Bing
, a German art dealer in Paris, displayed works by Bigot, among others, and was responsible for exposing the Art Nouveau style. Bigot’s Parisian firm closed in 1914 due to a decline in the popularity of Art Nouveau.
Source
Info
Patent No. 1,497,084. Application Filed: October 6, 1920. Patented: June 10, 1924. Link
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
movement; including: Jules Lavirotte
Jules Lavirotte
Jules Aimé Lavirotte was a French architect who designed no fewer than nine buildings still standing in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, or in immediately surrounding arrondissements...
, Hector Guimard
Hector Guimard
Hector Guimard was an architect, who is now the best-known representative of the French Art Nouveau style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries....
, Louis Majorelle
Louis Majorelle
Louis-Jean-Sylvestre Majorelle, usually known simply as Louis Majorelle, was a French decorator and furniture designer who manufactured his own designs, in the French tradition of the ébéniste...
, Henri Sauvage
Henri Sauvage
Henri Sauvage was a French architectural designer.Sauvage was born in Rouen, France. After studying at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in the atelier of Jean-Louis Pascal, he opened a wallpaper shop in Paris for which he got orders from Hector Guimard and Louis Majorelle, he then...
, Henry van de Velde
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...
, Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret was a French architect and a world leader and specialist in reinforced concrete construction. In 2005 his post-WWII reconstruction of Le Havre was declared by UNESCO one of the World Heritage Sites....
, Andre Arfidson, Anatole de Baudot and more.
Bigot was a physics and chemistry instructor who became interested in ceramics in 1889 after viewing Chinese porcelain at the Exposition Universelle
Exposition Universelle (1889)
The Exposition Universelle of 1889 was a World's Fair held in Paris, France from 6 May to 31 October 1889.It was held during the year of the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, an event traditionally considered as the symbol for the beginning of the French Revolution...
in Paris. With his knowledge of chemistry, Bigot was able to create glazes with a large variety of colors and finishes.
Bigot's firm was based at Rue des Petites Ecuries, Paris and he also created a ceramics factory in Mer in 1889 which employed as many as 150 people. Samuel Bing
Samuel Bing
Siegfried Bing , often referenced erroneously as "Samuel Bing", was a German art dealer who lived in Paris as an adult, and who helped introduce Japanese art and artworks to the West and was a factor in the development of the Art Nouveau style during the late nineteenth century.-Biography:Bing was...
, a German art dealer in Paris, displayed works by Bigot, among others, and was responsible for exposing the Art Nouveau style. Bigot’s Parisian firm closed in 1914 due to a decline in the popularity of Art Nouveau.
Paris Exhibition of 1900
Bigot fabricated René Binet’s designs for the main gateway to the Paris Exhibition of 1900.Avenue Rapp No. 29, 1901
Designed by Jules Lavirotte, Avenue Rapp no. 29, Paris was the residence of Alexandre Bigot.
In 1901, Jules Lavirotte’s design for this won a municipal competition as the year’s best. Its extraordinary portal is the ultimate in Art Nouveau exuberance. The carved elements feature a central bust of a woman with flowing hair, balanced by carved naked figures rising above the sides.
Rue d'Abbeville No. 14, 1901
Architects: Alexandre & Edouard AutantSource
Avenue De Wagram No. 34 (Ceramic Hotel), 1904
This reinforced concrete building, built by Jules Lavirotte, was nicknamed "Ceramic Hotel" for its glazed earthenware façade, created by Alexandre Bigot and sculpted by [Camille Alaphilippe]. Exemplifying the sensual Art Nouveau style of turn-of-the-century Paris, this residence won the city prize for the best façade of 1905.
Rue Franklin No. 25, 1904
Architect: Auguste PerretInfo
Rue Campagne-Premiere No. 31, 1911
Architect: Andre Arfidson
Ceramic detailing gives this industrial façade charm and helped the architect win an award for its frontage in 1911 from the Town of Paris. The sandstone tiling by ceramist Alexandre Bigot covers this reinforced concrete duplex of twenty workshops with residences. The three-dimensional floral elements add geometric patterning to the piers and around the window borders.
United States Patents
Patent No. 838,496. Application Filed: February 17, 1903. Patented: December 11, 1906. Link- A process for the manufacturing of glazed or enameled ceramic ware.
Patent No. 1,497,084. Application Filed: October 6, 1920. Patented: June 10, 1924. Link
- A drying kiln for the production of ceramic ware.