Cesar Isidore Henri Cros (b, Narbonne, France 1840-1907, Paris) pioneered a technique known as pate-de-verre, whereby variously colored glasses are placed in a clay mould and kiln-fired to form a vitreous material, by using the acid of metal oxides. Many of Cros’ moulds are preserved today at the Musee Nationale de Ceramiques, Sevres, as it was the Manufacture Nationale de Sevres who had provided Cros a pension and a studio in order to pursue his research and create his work. His tour de force in this genre is the enormous Apotheosis of Victor Hugo housed in the Maison Victor Hugo, Paris. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY also has a fine collection of his work.
In addition to his importance to glass-making, Cros was a notable painter, and sculptor. He trained at L’Ecole des beaux-arts de Paris under the sculptors, Francois Jouffroy and Antoine Etex and the painter, Jules Valadon. After his Salon debut in Paris in 1861, Cros joined fellow avant-garde artists to show at the anti-establishment Salon des refuses of 1863. He was awarded several medals for his artistic work at l’Exposition Universelle in 1889 and in 1900 in Paris and was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honnor. In 1905, A.A. Hebrard opened a gallery located at 8 rue Royale in Paris, where they presented sculpture by artists whose work they produced at their foundry, including Cros's Female Relief Plaque. Today, many examples of earthenware fountains and sculpture by Cros can be found in national museums throughout France and in private collections.