Henri Zuber 1844-1909

Henri Zuber was born in Rixheim, near Mulhouse, into the family that ran the Jean Zuber & Cie manufactory, renowned for its large-scale panoramas. Gifted in drawing, he nonetheless initially pursued a maritime career at the insistence of his parents, taking part in Far Eastern expeditions during which he continuously documented what he saw through drawings, watercolors, and writing. These experiences left a striking visual record of 19th-century China and Japan.

However, his passion for painting ultimately led him to abandon a naval career. In 1868, he entered the studio of Charles Gleyre (1806–1874), where he began his true artistic training, particularly learning oil painting, a medium he had scarcely practiced until then.

Life in Paris

Zuber settled in Paris and experienced the French defeat of 1871 with great distress (he had defended the walls of the capital at the Fort du Mont Valérien) followed by the turmoil of the Commune. On 20 July 1871, he married Madeleine Oppermann, daughter of the Parisian Protestant banker Louis Oppermann. After the misfortune of losing his wife a few years later, he remarried in 1883 to Hélène Risler. From his two marriages, Henri Zuber had seven children.

He devoted all his time to painting, working in Paris and across Île-de-France, and traveling extensively. He spent extended spring and autumn stays with his family in numerous regions of France, as well as in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and England.

His Work

Throughout his career, Zuber exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français and the Salon des Aquarellistes, where he became a prominent figure. His works are preserved in many museums both in France and abroad. Admired for his warmth, upright character, and talent, Henri Zuber was universally respected.

His artistic research focused on effects of light, the movement of clouds across changing skies, and the reflections of water - studies that informed his entire career as a landscape painter. Among earlier influences, he admired Claude Gellée, known as Le Lorrain (1600–1682), for his skies in grand classical compositions; English landscapists such as Constable (1776–1837) and Richard Parkes Bonington (1802–1828), an exceptional watercolorist; and Dutch painters, masters of landscapes with ever-changing atmospheres.

Zuber also drew inspiration from more immediate predecessors who had advanced the observation of nature and life in painting, notably Camille Corot (1796–1875) and Gustave Courbet (1819–1877). However, he remained apart from the major movements that renewed painting in his time, including the Impressionists.