Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1863–1958) 
Vase, 1898
Stoneware

In the mid-1880s, J.F. Willumsen met Juliette Meyer (1863–1949), who became his private pupil and, later, fiancée. The couple married in 1890, and together they had the sons Jan Bjørn and Bode Bertel. Juliette worked only briefly as a sculptor while she was married to Willumsen, who liked to use her as a model in several of his works, including in the etching Fertility (1891) and in The Family Vase (1893).

Willumsen left his family in the autumn of 1898, after having met the sculptor Edith Wessel (1875–1963) at Bing & Grøndahl, where they both worked. This also meant leaving behind the villa in Hellerup where he had his studio and workshop with the ceramic kilns. Willumsen thus no longer had the opportunity to fire his works himself, bringing his ceramic production to a natural end.

This vase is one of Willumsen’s last ceramic pieces. Shaped by moulding, it is covered in a glossy, brown glaze. Unlike the other two vases in the David Collection (MK 56) (MK 67), this one is decorated with relief carvings filled with a yellow-green glaze, a light blue copper glaze and yellow-brown glaze.