Ytiga Noumata - Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres

Duckling

Origin

France

Period

1920-1949

Materials

Porcelain

Dimensions

W.	4.1 in;	H.	2.25 in;	D.	2.1 in;
W.	10.41 cm;	H.	5.72 cm;	D.	5.33 cm;

Condition

Good. Minor restoration

Creation Date

1929

Description

Ytiga Noumata began his apprenticeship at the School of Fine Arts in Tokyo, where he specialized in realistic zoomorphic representations. He studied French with the aim of training in France and obtained trainee status at the Manufacture de Sèvres. He realizes that ceramics can be a means of sculptural expression and that it should not be limited to the anecdotal framework of the small object of decoration. The sculptor also shows his desire to adapt the processes of Sèvres to a more Japanese iconography. It was with Auguste Rodin, at whose house Noumata worked from 1905 to 1906, that he perfected himself in the modeling of the earth, before returning to Japan, where he played a fundamental role in the revival of ceramics in sculpture. He stays a second time in Sèvres in 1921.

Appointed chief of the Department of Sculpture at the Experimental Ceramic Institute of Kyoto in 1932, he went so far as to create, in 1937, the Japanese Association of Ceramic Sculpture. In 1941, he built a wood oven on the model of those of Sèvres and in 1946 he founded a research institute for decorative ceramic sculpture in Seto.

He is generally considered the founder of ceramic sculpture in his country. The first Japanese to have received the Légion d'Honneur, he created some twenty sculptures during his two stays at the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres.

An Essay on Noumata Is included (in Japonese) in the catalogue illustrated and referenced.

Styles / Movements

Modern

Book References

A similar model illustrated in Elégance, du 20ème siècle, L'Exposition des Porcelaines de Sèvres du style Art Déco, exhibition catalogue, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, October 2-December 19, 1993. Page 132-135

Catalog References

http://www.sevresciteceramique.fr/site.php?type=E&id=142

Article References

Elégance, du 20ème siècle, L'Exposition des Porcelaines de Sèvres du style Art Déco, exhibition catalogue, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, October 2-December 19, 1993,

Dealer Reference Number

IC 107

Incollect Reference Number

210581