Literature: Leif Lautrup-Larsen, “Stentøj: Den kongelige Porcelænsfabrik”, 2007, ill. in colours p. 260, reference p. 259.

Hans Hvass, “Arbejder af Jeanne Grut”, p. 14–15. Forlaget København 1964.

Jeanne Grut (1927–2009) was, from 1958, a permanent artist at the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory, where she created a large number of ceramic sculptures, often inspired by the forms and movements of the animal kingdom. Her work combines a sensitive observation of nature’s details with a clear sense of the material’s sculptural potential.

“Blue Fish” is one of Grut’s major works. With its expressive modeling and mottled deep-blue glaze, it is both a vivid and, at the same time, fossil-like and fragile depiction of the prehistoric fish Coelacanth, which until 1938 was believed to be extinct. Jeanne Grut sculpted the fish in 1963, and in 1971 it was presented as a gift to the Japanese Emperor Akihito during his visit to the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory that same year. The fish was later put into production in two versions, made in only a few examples.

With its flowing forms and deep-blue glaze, The Blue Fish appears both as a study of nature and as an abstraction. The interplay of glaze and light on the surface gives the work a lively, almost fluid character, in which the maritime motif is transformed into a poetic interpretation of movement and balance.