Robert Henri

Robert Henri (June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School of American realism and an organizer of the group known as "The Eight," a loose association of artists who protested the restrictive exhibition practices of the powerful, conservative National Academy of Design.

Early life

Robert Henri was born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati, Ohio to Theresa Gatewood Cozad and John Jackson Cozad, a gambler and real estate developer. Henri was a distant cousin of the painter Mary Cassatt. In 1871, Henri's father founded the town of Cozaddale, Ohio. In 1873, the family moved west to Nebraska, where John J. Cozad founded the town of Cozad.

In October 1882, Henri's father became embroiled in a dispute with a rancher, Alfred Pearson, over the right to pasture cattle on land claimed by the family. When the dispute turned physical, Cozad shot Pearson fatally with a pistol. Cozad was eventually cleared of wrongdoing, but the mood of the town turned against him. He fled to Denver, Colorado, and the rest of the family followed shortly afterwards. In order to disassociate themselves from the scandal, family members changed their names. The father became known as Richard Henry Lee, and his sons posed as adopted children under the names Frank Southern and Robert Earl Henri (pronounced "hen rye"). In 1883, the family moved to New York City, then to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where the young artist completed his first paintings.

Henri-Robert

Henri-Robert (4 September 1863 – 12 May 1936) was a French lawyer, historian, and member of the Académie française in 1923.

Born of unknown parents and probably illegitimate, Henri-Robert was admitted to the Paris bar in 1885 and rose to become a celebrated criminal defense lawyer. He defended a young woman named Gabrielle Bompard in a sensational 1889 murder trial, calling in Georges Gilles de la Tourette as an expert witness on hypnotism. He also defended the fraudster Thérèse Humbert, and the serial child killer Jeanne Weber, twice. In 1903 a Paris correspondent for the New York Times described him as "an exceptionally successful lawyer... the favorite advocate of the criminal classes (who) has already saved innumerable heads from the guillotine".

From 1913 through 1919 he was President of the Paris Bar. After the First World War, Henry-Robert turned his focus to civil litigation, and to the production of books on historical topics such as Mary Stuart, Henry VIII, Catherine de Médici, Marie-Antoinette, and Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars.

Henri Robert

Henri Robert (1899 - 1987) is a French perfumer and chemist, he is best known for his role as Chief Perfumer at Les Parfums Chanel from 1953 - 1978.

Early life and career

Robert was born in the French town of Grasse. His father Joseph Robert was the Chief Perfumer at Etabs. Chiris. Joseph Robert was also a notable perfumer, he gave Francois Coty some of his first perfumery lessons and developed the solvent extraction process that revolutionised how the perfumery industry produced raw materials. By 1919 the younger Robert was also working at Chiris alongside perfumers Vincent Roubert, Ernest Beaux and Henri Alméras.

He later joined Parfums d'Orsay, where his one of his most significant creations was the fragrance Le Dandy in 1923.Le Dandy was a fashionable floral aldehyde, which although marketed to men became a favourite with young women of the 1920s. Following Francois Coty's death in 1934 Robert became Chief Perfumer at Coty. In 1936 he created Muguet de Bois in tribute to Francois Coty, taking inspiration from Coty's custom of presenting his employees with bunches of lily of the valley, taken from the grounds of his country home, every May first. After the outbreak of World War II, Robert moved to New York City and continued to work as a Perfumer at Coty from 1940 to 1943.