Henry Somm (or François Clément Sommier) studied with Gustave Morin (1809-1886) at the École Municipale de Dessin in Rouen, after which he moved to Paris followed by appretiships to Isidore Pils (1813/15-1875) and Henri Bravière. Taught as a graphic artist, he made the illustrations to numerous books between 1870-1901. Aside of this he designed menus, postcards, calendars and illustrations for newspapers and magazines like La Charge, Cravache, L'Inuite, Gazette Parisien, La Chronique parisienne, High life, Frou-Frou and Courier Français. At later age he also worked for Le Chat Noir and Le Rire. He also worked for Haviland, the porcelain factory where Félix Bracquemond (1833-1914) was the artistic director.
Invited by Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Somm exhibited at the fourth large Impressionist Exhibition in 1879 at 28 Avenue de l"Opera in Paris. He was also intensely attracted to Japonism, inspired by Philippe Burty (1830-1890) and Siegfried Bing (1838-1905). In 1890 he met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) who admired his work, especially his portraits of elegant Parisian ladies and daily life and the artists became friends. Toulouse-Lautrec also portrayed Somm. Later Somm also exhibited at Société des Artistes Français, Durand-Ruel, Georges Petit Gallery and B. Weil Galerie. In general, Somm is not considered an impressionist artist and his work intersects between Impressionism, Symbolism and Japonism.
The present drawing of Éduard Manet holding one of his drawing portfolio is perfectly in line with Somm's illustrative work and may have been a gift to the artist, though this hypothesis remains tentative as there's no documentation stating contact nor friendship between both artists.
