Maurice Dessertenne

Jacques Maurice Dessertenne (1867, Roussillon-en-Morvan, dept. Saône-et-Loire – after 1926) was a French painter and illustrator, with an active career between about 1897 and the mid 1920s.^[1][2][3]

Desertenne studied under artists: Joseph Blanc, Jean Paul Laurens, Antoine Étex and Charles-Gabriel Forget and later was mostly active in Paris. Among his range of works are zoological and anatomical copperplate engravings, paintings, and drawings. He was known for his portraits, historia, and genre work created, and illustrations provided for books. In his later years Maurice Desertenne lived part time in Mussy-sur-Seine, department Aube, a commune situated in the southern Champagne wine region bordering Burgundy, where he painted landscapes and sceneries.^[3]

Desertenne had been a member of ″Societé des Artistes français″. He worked for Paul Paris (1875–1938), a French naturalist who specialised in ornithology, and created illustrations for the Larousse dictionaries.^[4] The painter and draughtsman Jacques-Henri Dessertenne (1906–1987) was his son.^[5] He also had a daughter, Jacqueline (1908–1924), which died of tuberculosis. Both children were born and raised in Paris.^[3] Maurice and Jacques-Henri collaborated on some work.^[6]

Son Jacques was later marrying his wife, Simonne. Together they found a well known art supplies store on what is today Avenue René Coty. The Dessertennes are visited by artists Georges Braque, Fernand Léger among others, and Denise and Raymond Peynet to whom they developed a close acquaintance.^[3]