He wanted to be an artist (painter), which he was at
the beginning and at the end of his life, and once he had gained his diploma as
an engineer-potter, was hired as a ceramist decorator, in Sèvres from 1903 to
1904, in Nymphemburg from 1904 to 1906 and eventually at La Louvière (where he
arrived on December 5th 1906) as a decoration director in 1907. That
is where Charles CATTEAU’s formidable talent got to come out : the creation of
decoration. His pieces are of a superb quality, even exceptional as far as
sophisticated stoneware is concerned, with stylized designs, flora and
fauna-inspired. The International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in 1925 brought
him a world-wide recognition and a Grand Prix (group of "Teaching"). Endowed
with a genuine social mission, which consisted in developing for every social
category an access to knowledge and taste, he founded the "Circle of Art’s
Friends" in 1908, which he presided over, and taught at the Industrial School
of La Louvière. In 1945 he retired in Nice.
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