Gzhel Ceramics / Гжель

Overview

Gzhel is the style of blue and white ceramics named for the village in which it has been produced since the 14th century. Gzhel is located in the Moscow Oblast, about 60km southeast of the capital and has been known for a long time for its clays.

Gzhel ceramics began as earthenware pottery created by artisans in their home workshops and did not feature the iconic blue and white color palette. This color scheme became popular in Russia in the 17th century with the reign of Peter I who loved all things Western, including blue and white Dutch ceramics. However, European ceramics were expensive.

Craftsmen in Gzhel developed a variety of different "recipes" over time including semifaience, faience (pottery that is tin-glazed or made of glazed material), and porcelain (hard, water resistant, and translucent ceramic material). Semifaience was "an exclusively Gzhelian ceramic. It was more crude than European faience, but thinner and less porous." Later thin faience emerged in Gzhel (Setdikova).

By the early 19th century, Gzhel ceramic makers honed a process that produced white porcelain similar to that of Europe and China. By the mid 19th century, word had spread about the "birthplace of Russian porcelain," and Gzhel became the leading producer of ceramics in Russia.

Style, Technique, and Use

Unlike many Russian crafts which showcase the color red, the color palette of Gzhel ceramics is blue and white. There are few reasons why. Blue and white ceramics were popular in Russia due to the interest in European and Chinese ceramics. Since porcelain requires a high firing temperature and other colors fade at such temperatures, the choice to use blue, which remained vibrant, was practical as well as aesthetic.

Gzhel ceramics are all painted by hand. Motifs include flowers, roses in particular. As prominent Gzhel artist Valentin Rozonov notes, "It’s not a simple daisy; it’s a noble, precious and rare flower, people have always strived for all things luxurious" (Setdikova). The designs are painted with very few brush strokes. " Roses in Gzhel are closed, painted with three-four strokes... Artists put a different amount of paint on two sides of the brush: with just one stroke they give it a shade and depth – that’s how the paint is distributed with a circular stroke – just one" (Setdikova).

This technique has been called "brushstroke with shadows" (Yampolskaya). The different thickness of glaze lead to fine or thick lines and different shades of blue. Ghzel ceramics are made into common tableware items like teapots, cups, containers, spoons, bowls, and plates, as well as vases, figurines and sculptures, clocks, and more.

Ghzel Ceramics Decline and Revival 

The 20th century saw a decline in national handicrafts, due in part to the rise of mass production and the nationalization of factories following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. WWI also impacted the production of Gzhel ceramics, since it was men who made ceramics in Gzhel.

Gzhel ceramics began to make a comeback in the 1940s when Aleksandr Saltykov, and art historian, moved the Gzhel and began to collect ceramics and restore the old technology used to create them. He organized archeological excavations of ceramics and brought Gzhel ceramics to museums for exhibitions.

Saltykov also began using an underglaze technique, during which the glaze changes color from black to bright cobalt blue during firing. This brought about stunning gradations of blues (Yampolskaya). He worked with artist Natalia Bessarabova to create a "stroke alphabet" for the artform who taught it to other artists. Bessarabova studied many examples of old Ghzel ceramics before creating her own works. She is considered the founder of the modern Gzhel style (Yampolskaya).

There are museums in Gzhel and in Moscow that showcase the artform. Checkout this promo video for the Gzhel Museum in Moscow.

Sources:

Gazdyuk, Pavel et. al. "Russian Handicrafts: Gzhel Porcelain."Russia Beyond the Headlines (April 6, 2016).

Setdikova, Dina. "Everything You Need to Know About Russia's Famous Blue-and-White Tableware." Gateway to Russia (December 26, 2022). 

Vasilyev, Igor. Gzhel Pottery. Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers, 1987.

Yampolskaya, G. "The Cradle of Russian Ceramics."UNESCO (October 21, 2018).

Images:

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