Henry Somm

Portraits - Original Ink Drawings on Paper by H. Somm - Late 19th Century

Late 19th Century

François Clément Sommier, best known under the pseudonym “Henry Somm” was born in Rouen in 1844. He attended the local École municipale des beaux-arts and went on in 1867 to Paris, where he studied under Isidore Pils (1813–75). He moved to Paris in 1860. Between 1873 and 1876, he made many engravings for the magazine Paris à l'eau-forte and then at the Cadart printing house. In 1879 and 1889, he participated in the Impressionist exhibitions from the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris. He collaborated with the newspapers like Le Chat noir, La Charge, La Cravache, La Chronique parisienne, High Life, Frou-Frou and Le Rire. He wrote the comedy in one act La Berline de l'Émigré ou Jamais trop tard pour bien faire, created for Le Chat noir on December 25, 1885. Somm left a large number of drawings and watercolors of Paris made in plein air.