by Gisèle Favre (1912-2007)
from the Vatican Church, Expo Brussels 1958, Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament (Marriage)
Photo: Max Schulz 2019
The main part of the wall painting is composed of 15 square images on glazed tiles, abstractly referencing the sacrament and the receiving couple, then life in marriage in the context of a family, interspersed and framed by plants, man-made objects and ornaments.
Chapel of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, Vatican Pavilion Expo 1958
Photo: Website Gisèle Pinsard, giselepinsard-les4potiers.fr
Gisèle Favre, daughter of the painter Marie-Thérèse Lanoa and the painter P. A. Favre, married Pinsard in 1939, worked mainly with ceramics—in the sense of the time as an artisan-artiste, both craftswoman and artist—and saw herself in the tradition of Italian Renaissance maiolica [faience]. She ran a ceramic workshop named Les 4 Potiers, located in the home of her husband, the architect Pierre Pinsard, in Paris. Primarily, she used her designs for glazed tiles and tiled surfaces, which were installed in public buildings such as churches, banks, and cafes, as well as in private spaces, especially kitchens. On a large scale, she also designed household utility ceramics, e.g., for Primavera, the art magazine of Printemps. On another work by the artist in the Church of Our Lady [Liebfrauenkirche], please, see juwel 07, too.
All French artists of the Vatican Church were personally connected to Pierre Pinsard (1906–1988), who played a major role at the 1958 Expo: setting up the French Pavilion and acting as the architect of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in the Vatican Church. In 1953, Pinsard had been one of the architects of a groundbreaking sacred building in Lille, the Dominican Priory.
References:
https://giselepinsard-les4potiers.fr/biographie (2014, retrieved Feb. 19, 2019).
http://pierrepinsard.fr/biographie (retrieved Feb. 19, 2019)
Agnès Rosenstiehl: Notification by email dated April 14, 2019.
