Henri Laurent-desrousseaux Oil On Paper Two Men

Astonishing and rare oil on paper representing two men in an interior. Symbolist and miserabilist scene from 1906. Original work by Henri Laurent-Desrousseaux, signed lower right and dated 1906. Work on paper mounted on cardboard. Black overpaintings, particularly in the upper left part, are highlighted in the light of the UV lamp (see photos). Very beautiful treatment of light and the background in which we can guess the bed and the interior of the room. The painting measures 28.3 X 37.5 cm Henri Alphonse Louis Laurent was born in Joinville-le-Pont. He is the son of two painters: Henri Adolphe Louis Laurent (born in Valenciennes in 1830) and Lydie Adèle Laurent-Desrousseaux (born in Cherbourg in 1836). In 1881, he entered the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, where his teachers were Émile Bin and Albert Maignan. Henri Laurent-Desrousseaux painted religious scenes and landscapes in particular. Several of his works won awards at the Paris Salons and at the Universal Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900 in Paris. According to the art critic Firmin Javel, Laurent-Desrousseaux was "a poet" and "a young artist who would also achieve great success", citing some of his watercolours (Le Chemin de la ferme, la Plage, Dans les foins, la Combe d'Amorey), he considered that they were "so many exquisite pages, so many accurate impressions. And what originality in the choice of models!" For a columnist for the daily newspaper Le Gaulois, "Laurent-Desrousseaux is absolutely a young master; he has a unique background, there is something definitive, fixed in his work. The Village Pharmacy with, under the lamplight, its nuns in cornets preparing medicines, is of a restful impression. The pastel The Bottom of the Garden transports one to a corner of Zola's Paradou. The tones of its flesh, of its flowers are of an unheard-of delicacy and transparency. Henri Laurent-Desrousseaux meets Camille Moreau-Nélaton (1840-1897), painter and ceramist; she is the mother of the painter and art historian Étienne Moreau-Nélaton. He decides to devote himself mainly to the latter discipline. For his ceramics, he will use the pseudonym of Henri-Léon Charles Robalbhen and will create pieces that will be very appreciated by the public. As an illustrator, Henri Laurent-Desrousseaux collaborates with various newspapers, such as Le Figaro illustré, La Mode pratique. He made watercolors for novels, such as Alphonse Daudet's Le Trésor d'Arlatan or Reine des bois, written by André Theuriet. At the end of the nineteenth century, he shared a studio with his parents on rue Hippolyte-Lebas, in the 9th arrondissement. Henri Laurent-Desrousseaux then settled in Valmondois, then in Seine-et-Oise, today in Val-d'Oise, in a farmhouse where he had a potter's kiln built. He died there on August 11, 1906, at the age of 44.