Background
The son of a small farmer from Calvados, he started his career as a dealer in wallpaper in Paris.
The son of a small farmer from Calvados, he started his career as a dealer in wallpaper in Paris.
Together they started a business selling miniatures of antique statues from museums all over Europe, thus democratising art and making it more accessible to households. From 1843 they extended their scope by reproducing the work of living artists and also diversified by making enamelled household objects. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 the firm briefly had to switch to cannon founding owing to the shortage of metals but resumed business afterwards.
Among the principal artists reproduced by the firm were Antoine Louis Barye and Auguste Rodin.