A row of trees lining what appears to be a roadway is covered in snow, along with the surrounding landscape.

François Chéri-Rousseau: 1826-1908

François Rousseau, known as François Chéri-Rousseau, born in Bergerac on September 14, 1826 and died in Saint-Just-sur-Loire on December 1, 1908, was a French photographer. He spent his career almost exclusively in Saint-Étienne and had two sons, also photographers.

Biography

Son of Jean Rousseau, a gardener, he began his career as a photographer in Cusset, in the Allier department, where he married in 1856. He then settled in Saint-Étienne and had two sons, Gaston Jean-Baptiste, born in 1856 and Guillaume Marie Charles born in 18591, who would later take over their father’s business. He occupied a shop at 7 place mi-carême around 1860 then at 8 place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville until around 1890 and presented himself as a painter-photographer. He was a member of the Société française de photographie from 1879 and counted among his friends Étienne Carjat and Eugène Disdéri. He is also said to have worked in Paris. He died in 1908, but due to the activity of his sons there is some confusion about the end of his career. 

Activity

Chéri-Rousseau, in addition to his commercial activity of portraits and business card photos, was interested in local life in Saint-Etienne, published postcards of the city and produced large-format photo reports on various subjects which were collected in albums, two of which are preserved:

• Works of art on the railways from Firminy to Annonay and from Pertuiset to Saint-Just-sur-Loire2

• The cavalcade of Saint-Chamond (Loire) of 1885.

He received several awards:

• 6 Gold medals at various Exhibitions

• Honorary Diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts

• Gold Medal at the Universal Exhibition in Paris 1878

• Hors Concours at the Universal Exhibition in Paris 1889, member of the Jury

• Hors Concours at the Universal Exhibition of Photography in Geneva 1893, Member of the Jury

He filed a patent in 1876 for the application of the painting on photographs in oily ink. He is said to have published a book in 1893: Practical method for printing small format prints using the carbon process, Paris, ed. Gauthier-Villars et fils (attributed to his son Gaston by the BnF). He built and operated the Aléthorama, a continuous-motion cinematograph patented by Paul Mortier. ⎯Wikipedia -translated: (2024)

His son was Gaston Jean-Baptiste Rousseau: 1856-1927. See examples of his work in the PhotoSeed Archive.