Henry Cros, 1840-1907 : Sculpteur Et Dessinateur

Exhibition at MAD, Paris, 6 March - 26 May 2024

Henry Cros (1840-1907) was a painter, sculptor, ceramist and glassmaker who invented sculpture in pâte de verre. Although he was admired by Auguste Rodin and Antoine Bourdelle, he was a friend of Paul Verlaine and Édouard Manet. Along with his brothers, Charles, a poet and inventor, and Antoine, a doctor, he played a part in the literary and artistic modernity of the 1860s and 1870s.

Through more than a hundred sculptures, paintings and drawings from the collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, alongside a number of exceptional loans, this monographic exhibition catalogue seeks to understand whether Henry Cros was a Romantic, Neo-Classical or Symbolist artist. It presents the artist's major themes - portraits of children, figures from a dreamlike Antiquity and fairy tales - and illustrates his technical mastery, particularly through his sculptures in glass, wax, terracotta, bronze and marble.