François Houtin

Topiaire Habité — Surreal Topiary Etching by François Houtin

1978

François Houtin was born in Craon en Mayenne, France in 1950. He has lived and worked in Paris since 1971. He was trained as a landscape architect, and worked on such prominent projects as the renovation of the Jardin des Tuileries in 1991. It wasn't until 1973 that he learned printmaking from Jean Delpech, and by 1979 he had become a full-time artist known for his highly detailed prints of utopian gardens. His prints mix equal parts of superb draughtsmanship, deep appreciation for the history of Classical French landscape architecture, and his own unfettered imagination. Houtin was awarded the Prix de Gravure Lacourière in 1981 and the Prix de Gravure Florence Gould in 1986. In 1991, he became a member of the Société des Peintres-Graveurs Français. While etching remains his preferred mode of expression, since 2002 Houtin has also made very large ink wash drawings on paper and canvas. For four years, he produced windows for Hermès, monumental decorations of foliage and beautiful frescoes painted in tempera.