Henri Chapron

Who was Henri Chapron?

Henri Chapron was a prominent French automobile coachbuilder. His atelier, created in 1919, was located in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret.

Chapron was born in Nouan-le-Fuzelier, and began his career developing custom body designs for French luxury vehicles, like Talbot, Delage, and Delahaye, in the 1920s.

As France ceased building vehicles of this type in the 1950s, Chapron switched his attention to the recently launched Citroën DS with its revolutionary aerodynamic design and radical hydraulic suspension. At first Chapron purchased these vehicles and customised them as one-off conversions. Many of these became unique convertible variants of the DS known as the "Décapotable". All told, Chapron created 389 hand-built DS convertibles.

In 1961, the Citroën dealership network began distributing a standard 'usine' two door convertible. In the years 1961 to 1971, 1,365 of these vehicles were made - they are highly collectible today.

Chapron continued his one-off conversions as well. When the Citroën SM was introduced in 1970, Chapron created two new variants - the Mylord cabriolet and the Opéra four door sedan.