Robert et Jean Cloutier
1930 – 2008
Twin brothers Robert Cloutier (Paris, 1930 – 2008) and Jean Cloutier (Paris, 1930 – 2015) were iconic French ceramicists and sculptors of the post-war Trente Glorieuses era. Trained under mid-century masters such as Georges Jouve and Pol Chambost, they distinguished themselves through their dreamlike, zoomorphic, and anthropomorphic creations. Their exceptional mastery of contrast and glaze, most notably their famous "Cloutier red", along with their playful poetic sensibility, make them essential figures in the 1950s and 1960s revival of French ceramics.
Biography
Educated at the École des Arts Appliqués in Paris, the twins honed their craft under the greatest names in post-war ceramics. They worked in the studios of Georges Jouve, Pol Chambost, and Jean Derval, absorbing rigorous technical standards and a strong taste for modern lines.
In 1955, they opened their own studio on rue de Reuilly in Paris. Working in inseparable tandem, they developed a joyful, poetic universe populated by stylized female figures, suns, bulls, and birds, fully embracing the optimistic spirit of the 1950s.
They rapidly developed a strong visual signature by playing with material contrasts: raw, dark, matte chamotte clay (often black or brown) juxtaposed with smooth, deep, and brilliant enamels. The pinnacle of this technique was their striking oxblood red, which became legendary as "Rouge Cloutier."
Fleeing Parisian industrialization, they relocated to Marsangy (Yonne) in 1968, and later to the Languedoc region in 1972. Their practice then expanded to include larger-scale works: monumental sculptures, openwork ceramic walls (claustras), and large decorative architectural panels, preserving their imaginative spirit until Robert's death in 2008.
"The Cloutier brothers modeled the smile of the post-war boom: beneath their fingertips, raw clay met fiery enamels to breathe life into a bestiary of absolute poetry and modernity.”
