Édouard Houssin


Édouard Charles Marie Houssin was a French sculptor.

Life

Édouard Charles Marie Houssin was born in Douai on 13 September 1847.
In 1856 he joined the Academic Schools of Douai, and there received several awards.
In 1864 he moved to Paris and joined the private studios of Henri Lemaire of Valenciennes and François Jouffroy of Dijon.
In 1866 he was admitted to the sculpture section of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
In 1868 Houssin displayed his first bust to the Society of Friends of the Arts of Douai.
From 1871 to 1877 he was professor of sculpture at the Douai Art Schools.
He then returned to Paris, where he exhibited regularly at the Salon.
His works were rewarded with several awards and medals.
Many of his works were purchased by the state, and he received many public commissions.
Early in 1894 he was appointed professor of modeling the National Manufacture of Sèvres, a position he held until his death in 1919.
On 17 January 1794 Houssin participated in a conference followed by a banquet hosted by Charles Bodinier at the Théâtre d'Application in honor of the poet Marceline Desbordes-Valmore in the company of along with Paul Verlaine, Émile Gallé, Robert de Montesquiou and other personalities of the art world.
It was during this conference that the idea of a monument to the poet was launched.
He created the statue of the poet Marceline Desbordes-Valmore in Douai, inaugurated on 13 July 1896. It disappeared during World War I.
He undertook numerous public commissions, particularly in the north of France, that have now disappeared.
Édouard Houssin died in Paris on 15 May 1919.
A square in Wissant bears his name.
In 1895 Fernand Lefranc wrote in La Revue du Nord, "His busts, all of impeccable and beautifully executed accuracy cannot be counted."

Works

Over 144 works are attributed to him, of which 99 are portraits. Today the locations of only 27 works are known.