Henri-Laurent DESROUSSEAUX (1862-1906), L’Isle Adam: Art Nouveau vase in terracotta with an enamel finish, featuring a relief decoration of branches and hazel leaves with a bronze patina. Signed in the base.
Henri-Laurent Desrousseaux (1862-1906) was a French painter, ceramist, and illustrator. After meeting Camille Moreau Nélaton (1840-1897), a painter and ceramist, he decided to dedicate himself primarily to ceramics. He sometimes used the pseudonym Henri-Léon Charles Robalbhen to sign his works. Towards the end of his life, he settled in Valmondois, near L’Isle-Adam, in the Val d’Oise. This baluster-shaped vase, made of enameled ceramic, features a light relief decoration of branches and hazel leaves—finished with a bronze and gold patina, inspired by the Art Nouveau style. It is finely crafted and bears the mark of the L’Isle-Adam pottery factory beneath, dating it to around 1900. The terracotta factories of L’Isle-Adam developed their activity between 1890 and 1908. These Art Nouveau-inspired pieces—an influential movement at the turn of the century in the field of decorative arts, alongside some sculptures by Joseph Le Guluche (e.g., “Vase à la ronde de sirène et tritons,” between 1890 and 1908)—show the variety of works produced in the terracotta factories of L’Isle-Adam, which contributed to the town’s reputation and growth at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The Louis-Senlecq Museum of Art and History holds a pair of floral-decorated vases, also made by Henri-Laurent Desrousseaux, in its collection.
