Susse Frères

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Lettering Susse Fres. and foundry mark, approx. 1850–70

Susse Frères ( German:  Susse Brothers ) was a company in Paris run by the French Susse family from 1804 to 1975 , whose members, in addition to stationery products and, for a short time, photo cameras, have mainly been involved in the production (casting) and publishing of art items ( Éditeurs d 'art ) employed. The Maison Susse Frères had various production facilities and exhibition rooms in which works by at least 380 artists were handcrafted, exhibited and sold.

history

Family tree of the Susse family

  • Jean Susse (* 1726)
  • Jean- Baptiste († 1803)
  • Nicolas Susse (* 1770)
  • Michel -Victor Susse (1782-1853)
  • Jean-Louis- Victor Susse (1806-1860)
  • Eugène -Emile Susse († 1848)
  • Jean-Baptiste- Amédée Susse (1808–1880)
  • Léon Susse (1844-1910)
  • Albert -François-Aimable Susse (1840-1922)
  • Jacques Susse
  • André Susse († 1961) ⚭ Arlette

Jean and Baptiste Susse

Jean Susse (* 1726), a Lorraine carpenter from Saarlouis , settled in Paris in 1749 to manufacture furniture. In 1793 the business was in the hands of one of his seventeen children, Baptiste Susse, who had to give up his property due to financial setbacks and flee to San Domingo, where he died in 1803.

Nicolas and Michel Susse

His brother Nicolas Susse, an engraver, founded a business for high-quality stationery items with André Schrantz in 1804 in Passage des Panoramas 7 in Paris, near Boulevard Montmartre, from where they successfully sold paper and office items. Nicolas' younger brother, Michel, joined the company in 1816. They acquired the business premises in Passage des Panoramas 7 and 8 and expanded the product range with art supplies. In addition, the company brought out a number of books on drawing and painting techniques, including the "New Little Handbook of Oil Painting, Gender and Landscape Painting" and the "New Little Handbook of Miniature and Watercolor Painting of Portraits". In 1818 they were listed in the Social Yearbook as “purveyors to the court of His Royal Highness Duc de Berry”. Business was good, so that in 1827 it was necessary to open a larger branch at 31 Place de la Bourse in Paris, where they now also offered works of art for sale or rent.

The Maison Susse Frères commissioned foundries such as Richard et Quesnel in the 1830s, Quesnel et Cie in the 1840s and Eck et Durand in the 1850s, followed by Allard et Culan and finally Andro .

Victor, Amédée and Eugène Susse

After the death of Nicolas in 1836, Michel Susse retired and left the business to his sons Victor, Amédée and Eugène. They called the company Susse Frères and acted as Éditeurs d'art , i.e. as a publisher of art items such as lithographs of small sculptures. In 1839 the Susse brothers started exhibiting art objects after they had acquired a foundry in Faubourg du Temple, the 10th arrondissement of Paris. In the course of the expansion, additional workshop space was added in Rue Ménilmontant.

Camera built by Susse Frères, 1839

On August 19, 1839, François Arago officially presented the invention of photography by Louis Daguerre and Joseph Nicéphore Nièpce to the Académie des sciences and the public. Two months earlier, on June 22, 1839, Daguerre had already signed contracts with two manufacturers, his brother-in-law Alphonse Giroux and the Susse Frères . The two companies acquired the rights to manufacture and sell the first commercially available cameras obscura and the necessary accessories.

In the same year the company published a six-page catalog in which it presented its products. In 1840, she entered the Réunion des Fabricants . The Susse Frères bought models from the sculptors James Pradier , Charles Cumberworth and Émilien de Nieuwerkerke from 1841 and signed contracts with them for reproduction and serial production. In 1843 they set up sales rooms on three floors in the shop at 31 Place de la Bourse, where they brought their small sculptural groups and statuettes for exhibition and sale. In 1847 they bought a “ reducteure ” from Frédéric Sauvage to reduce colossal works to small- scale sculptures. Victor Susse was elected deputy chairman of the Réunion des Fabricants in 1848.

After the death of Eugène Susse in 1848, Victor and Amédée divided the responsibilities between them, with Amédée mainly devoted to the stationery and office supplies business. He designed a perforating machine for sheets of stamps, which he applied for a patent in 1861. At the Great Exhibition of 1851 Susse was awarded a medal. After Victor's death in 1860, Amédée continued the business, from 1872 with his sons Albert and Léon.

In 1874 John Pradier, the son of the sculptor James Pradier, sued the company over the reproduction rights to his father's works. Pradier won, and Susse had to give up reproducing the works after more than thirty years. In 1875 the Susse brothers published a complete catalog in 1875, which contained a list of all works by the company at the time. The artists who were exclusively signed included Pierre-Jules Mêne , Auguste Cain and Pierre-Nicolas Tourgueneff . The company has also published works by Louis-Ernest Barrias , Jules Dalou , Agathon Léonard , Théodore Rivière , Hector Lemoire , Alexandre Falguière , Mathurin Moreau and Paul Richer . Around 1875 half of their production was exported.

Albert and Léon Susse

Statue Grand paysan by Jules Dalou , cast by Susse Frères in 1904.

After Amédée's death in 1880, his sons Albert and Léon took over the Maison Susse . Albert Susse was accepted into the Legion of Honor in May 1894 . In 1902 they opened a new and luxurious shop on Boulevard de la Madeleine 13-15. At the exhibition Liège International - 1905 Susse received the Grand Prix. In 1909 Albert Susse was elected President of the "Association of Bronze Manufacturers". Léon Susse died in 1910. His brother Albert donated the Susse Frères Prize in 1921, a year before his death, in recognition of the best apprentices.

Jacques Susse

Albert's son Jacques Susse joined the company in 1904. Albert retired in 1911 and sold the company in 1914 to Jacques, who opened a foundry in 1918 at 27 rue Diderot in Issy-les-Moulineaux , where he worked using the lost wax technique . Technical difficulties led to the rapid discontinuation of this production process by 1920. Jacques closed the gallery on Place de la Bourse in 1925 and moved the adjacent workshops to 7 Avenue Jeanne d'Arc in Arcueil . He had the gallery on Boulevard de la Madeleine renovated and exhibited contemporary Art Deco artists as well as works by Auguste Rodin and Antoine Bourdelle . In 1927 Jacques converted the company into a public company. In 1930 the Sauvage reduction process was abandoned in favor of the Brunet reducer, which Jacques found more efficient. During the Second World War , Jacques sold the building on Boulevard de la Madeleine, but Susse Frères remained the tenant.

André Susse

Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo von Ossip Zadkine , Susse 1964. Queen Juliana unveiled the statue in Zundert, the Netherlands .

In 1948 Jacques entrusted the management of the company to his son André Susse, who had been at his side since 1933. In 1949 he opened a new shop on Rue Boissy-d'Anglas. Together with his wife Arlette, André Susse has published works by modern artists such as Salvador Dalí , Max Ernst , Barbara Hepworth , Joan Miró , Henry Moore and the contemporary artists Fernando Botero , Marguerite Blume-Cárdenas , Barry Flanagan and Baltasar Lobo . After 1951, André Susse only ran the workshops in Arcueil and the shop on Rue Boissy-d'Anglas. In 1953 he finally gave up his publishing activity as an Éditeur d'Art . After the death of his father Jacques in 1954, André closed the shop on Rue Boissy d'Anglas in 1955 and concentrated on the foundry in Arcueil. André died in 1961; his widow continued to run the company until 1975 when she decided to sell the company.

Susse today

Today there is a gallery called Susse Frères in Galerie de Montpensier 56-62, Paris and a foundry called Susse Fondeur in rue Perrot 19 by Malakoff , which are committed to the tradition of the namesake. On their “incomplete list” they name 380 artists for whom the Susse foundry has produced bronzes in the past.

literature

  • Pierre Cadet: . 150 Years of Sculpture. Susse Frères, 1992. ISBN 0-94830-813-3 , 400 pp.
  • Pierre Kjellberg: Les bronzes du XIXe siècle (dictionnaire des sculpteurs), Paris, les éditions de l'amateur . 1989, pp. 665-676.

Web links

Commons : Susse Frères  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Susse . In: e-monumen.net
  2. ↑ Two-time silver medalist at the 1900 Summer Olympics in sailing. → Concours Internationaux d'Exercises Physiques Et De Sports. 1900.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Isabel Hufschmidt: The small sculptures by James Pradier. Sculpture in the industrialized art business of the 19th century. ibidem Press, 2011. ISBN 3-83826-010-4 , pp. 61ff.
  4. ^ A b Joseph G. Reinis: The Founders and Editors of the Barye Bronzes. Polymath Press, 2007. ISBN 0-93737-002-9 , p. 129.
  5. ^ Pierre Kjellberg: Bronzes of the 19th Century . Schiffer Publishing, Atglen 1994. ISBN 0-88740-629-7 , p. 471.
  6. ^ Marie-Sophie Corcy: Les substances accélératrices. In: Le Daguerréotype français, Paris 2003, pp. 262–265.
  7. ↑ Rachel Stuhlman: Luxury, Novelty, Fidelity - Madame Foa's Daguerreian Tale. In: Image, Journal of Photography and Motion Pictures of George Eastman House. Double special edition (Volume 40, Numbers 1-4.) 1997, pp. 2-61.
  8. ↑ a b La statuaire d'édition au 19ème siècle , section Les grands fondeurs-éditeurs ( Memento of July 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  9. ↑ a b c d Historique . In: susse.fr
  10. ^ A b La Nature Se Dévoilant Devant La Science '. In: lapada.org
  11. ↑ a b Pierre Cadet: Susse Frères. 150 Years of Sculpture. Susse Frères, 1992. ISBN 0-94830-813-3 , 400 pp.
  12. ↑ a b Susse Freres Foundry . In: bronze-gallery.com
  13. ↑ sussefreres.com
  14. ↑ susse.fr
  15. ↑ Nous avons travaillé pour eux . In: susse.fr