Henri Joseph Hesse (1781-1849) Portraits Of A Man With His Dog And His Wife

Henri Joseph HESSE
(Paris, 1781 – Paris 1849)
Portrait of a man with his dog - Portrait of a woman seated
Oil on canvas
H. 91 cm; L. 68 cm
Portrait of the man signed and dated lower right - 1821

Active as a designer, painter and lithographer, but perhaps better known as a miniaturist, Henri-Joseph Hesse entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris in 1795 where he was a student of Jacques-Louis David and by the painter and miniaturist Jean-Baptiste Isabey. He exhibited intermittently at the Salons between 1808 and 1833, making his debut with a painting depicting A Young Woman Looking at a Sleeping Child. At the Salon of 1810, he exhibited portraits and numerous miniatures and won a second class medal. Hesse traveled to Germany in 1815, but returned to Paris the following year, where he is listed as a miniature painter and living on rue Neuve-Sainte-Eustache. Hesse became known in particular for his miniatures, even if he also obtained several important commissions for official portraits, notably that of the Duchess of Berri, exhibited at the Salon of 1819, or those of Talleyrand and Madame de Staël. He won another medal at the last Salon where he participated in 1833. Hesse also produced a number of lithographic portraits. His older brother, Nicolas-Auguste Hesse (1795-1869), and his son, Alexandre Hesse (1806-1879) were both active as painters; the latter, a student of Baron Gros, acquired considerable fame as a painter of historical subjects and religious works.

The works of Henri-Joseph Hesse are today part of the collections of the Condé Museum in Chantilly, the Custodia Foundation (Frits Lugt Collection) and the Louvre in Paris, as well as the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid and the Briner und Kern Museum from Winterthur.