Copper and silver dish, diameter 18 cm, Henri Husson, around 1900.Dish (fragment of decor with a cicada).
Henri Husson was born in the Grandes Vosges in 1852. The son of a mechanic, he began his career following in his father’s footsteps. But the young man, who aspired to creative work, decided to change his career and took evening drawing courses. At the same time, he was engaged in the manufacture of custom-made furniture in the Renaissance style. For the most part, these works of his are not signed. It is interesting that he subsequently saw his products in private collections, which were considered works of art of the Renaissance.
Photographs of his furniture from that time survive, taken for an article by Léandre Vaille published in L’Art et les artistes revue mensuelle d’art ancien et moderne in 1913.
Since 1900, Henri Husson became interested in creating jewelry. Settled near Mantes, he lived in the countryside among fields and meadows. The design of his jewelry is inspired by the nature that surrounded him, suggesting his main themes. In his works, plants and insects that appear alive are reproduced as accurately as possible. He mainly worked with red copper, to which he added silver for expressiveness. He also created jewelry in gold and silver, sometimes with enamel.
Silver vase with a grasshopper, height 23 cm, Henri Husson, circa 1908.
Husson exhibited his silver works at the French Salon of Artists since 1901, and always received accolades for his talent. In 1909, Adrien Hébrard (1865–1937), with whom he sometimes worked, organized his first solo exhibition at his gallery on the Rue Royale in Paris. The following year he repeated this experience, this time exhibiting furniture and objects of decorative and applied art. In the same year he became a Knight of the Legion of Honor. A year before his death, in 1913, the Hébrard Gallery held an exhibition of his jewelry, which can be seen in the Petit Palais of the Museum of Fine Arts in Paris.
Senecon vase in patinated copper and silver with a grasshopper, Henri Husson, circa 1900.
Henri Husson died at the age of 62 in December 1914. The Russian collector Jacques Zubalov, a great admirer of the artist, whom he compared with the greatest jewelers, managed to collect a large collection of his works, which he donated to the Paris Museum of Fine Arts (Petit Palais) in 1916.
Silver bowl with relief decoration of leaves with a cockchafer, diameter 23.3 cm, Henri Husson, circa 1910.Patinated bronze and copper plate in the shape of a stingray with gold inlay, 38.1 x 28.6 cm, Henri Husson, circa 1907 1908.Copper plate with silver inserts, diameter 25 cm, Henri Husson, around 1900.Senecon vase in patinated copper and silver, height 16 cm, Henri Husson, 1905.Copper pencil case decorated with an applied grasshopper, length 21.5 cm, Henri Husson, circa 1905.Goblet with applied ivy branch decoration, length 14 cm, Henri Husson, circa 1900.Silver spoon with cockchafer, length 25 cm, Henri Husson, around 1900.Silver and gold Fly necklace, Henri Husson, circa 1909, from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Paris.Gold necklace with enamel, 1909, from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Paris.Silver brooch, 1909, from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Paris.Brooch in silver and gold, 1909, from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Paris.Gold pendant, circa 1909, from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Paris.Brooch Hippocampus, 1909, from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Paris.Silver box Ivy, 1909, from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts of Paris.Silver and gold bracelet, 1909, from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Paris.Gold brooch with agate and enamel, 1909, from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Paris.
