CitrusHenri Robert
Born in Grasse in 1899 and died in 1987, Henri Robert was Chanel’s second perfumer, after Ernest Beaux and before Jacques Polge. Trained at Chiris and having worked at Parfums d’Orsay and Coty, he created Pour Monsieur in 1955, N°19 in 1970 and Cristalle in 1974 for Chanel. He was the uncle of perfumer Guy Robert.
From Grasse to Coty
Henri Robert was born in Grasse in 1899. His father, Joseph Robert, ran the perfumery of the Chiris company, which he joined at twenty alongside Ernest Beaux, Henri Alméras and Vincent Roubert. He became chief perfumer of Parfums d’Orsay.
On the death of François Coty in 1934, he took charge of Coty’s perfumery, where he created Muguet des Bois in 1936. The war took him to New York, where he continued his work for the house.
Chanel: Pour Monsieur, N°19, Cristalle
In the early 1950s, he succeeded Ernest Beaux as chief perfumer of Chanel and Bourjois, two houses then united in the same company. Pour Monsieur, in 1955, was Chanel’s first masculine perfume, a mossy chypre.
N°19, in 1970, owes its name to August 19, Gabrielle Chanel’s date of birth: a green floral opening on galbanum, to which iris adds a powdery touch. It was the last perfume launched in Mademoiselle’s lifetime. Cristalle, in 1974, completed the trio.
A dynasty of perfumers
In 1978, Jacques Polge became Chanel’s third perfumer. The two tenures overlapped, and Jacques Polge recalls having succeeded an eighty-year-old man. Henri Robert died in 1987.
He was the uncle of Guy Robert, creator of Calèche for Hermès and of Madame Rochas, and the great-uncle of perfumer François Robert. N°19 and Pour Monsieur are sometimes wrongly attributed to Guy Robert: both perfumes are the work of his uncle.
