Georges Jouve was born in Fontenay-sous-Bois in 1910. The son of two decorators and the younger brother of ceramicist Denise Gatard, he enrolled at 17 at the prestigious Ecole Boulle in Paris to study art history. He acquired the nickname Apollo from his comrades, which he reused for his monogram. After graduation he became a theatre decorator. During World War II he was taken prisoner by the Germans. He managed to escape from the camp and took refuge in Dieulefit, a ceramicist village in the Drôme where he went to learn the arts of fire and perfect his technique. In 1944 he returned to Paris and opened his studio, he was spotted by Jacques Adnet who invited him to exhibit at the exhibition La Céramique Contemporaine. He then took part in many French and international fairs. He is the best known French ceramicist of this period thanks to his black enamel silver lustre that he is the only one to know how to make. To make this enamel so specific he used lead. Working without protections, the vapors of this metal will trigger in his body a severe lead poisoning that will kill him in 1964 at 53 years. Nowadays it is forbidden to work with lead and no one can reproduce the esoteric and mystical beauty of its enamel.