The name Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (1885-1953) appeared for the first time in 1914 at the Exposition des Artistes Française in Paris.  Critics and the public alike responded enthusiastically to his debut and recognized the artist’s originality, the idiosyncrasies of his work, and his extraordinary talent at working the little known and little practiced material of pâte de verre (glass paste).  Argy-Rousseau himself recognized that "the process of creating ‘pâte de verre’ is certainly the most artistic and the most personal of all the methods of working in glass and crystal because it allows the artist to easily convey all his thoughts.”

But exactly who was this unknown artist who suddenly stepped forward 10 years ...