BEESEL TERRACO DRAAK Sint Joris, Stoneware Sculpture, Centaur and Putti 1940s

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Stoneware sculpture by BEESEL TERRACO DRAAK Sint Joris, representing a centaur overlapped by putti or amours,
Symbolist work in very good condition dating from the 1940s or 1950s, recalling the 17th century work of Gerard Van Obstal.

Biography:
Atelier St. Joris was a Dutch workshop located in Beesel (Holland), specializing in the manufacture of Ceramics / Earthenware / Pottery.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Hendrik Simons founded the company "Simons & Vogels", a brickyard located in Beesel. In 1923, it will bear the name of "N.V. Steenfabriek St. Joris". During the Second World War, the "brickyard" was replaced in its name by "La Fabrique d'Argile". Today the company is known as St. Joris Keramic Industrie BV.
In 1937, director Herman Driessen founded Atelier St. Joris, as a brickyard department, and will focus on the production of art objects, executed in vitrified clay. The studio mainly manufactured religious pottery for churches and for domestic use, including crucifixes, bottles of holy water and pictures of saints, but also secular works such as vases. These were marked with BEESEL, TERRACO and / or DRAAG stamps and generally the designer's initials. Artists such as Charles Grips, Leo Jungblut, Louis Konickx, Frans Lommen, Albert Meertens, Jules Rummens, Piet Schoenmakers, Joep Thissen and Paul Vincken have worked for St. Joris.
Larger works were also made, including wall reliefs and statues of the Sacred Heart. A number of them are protected as a municipal or national monument. The peak of production took place between the 1930s and the mid-1960s. The studio was closed in 1994, although restoration work is still occasionally carried out by the company.
In 2006, the Beesels Ceramic Heritage Foundation was created, which is committed to the preservation of ceramic art made in Beesel.