Jean-Jacques Henner

Nymphe endormie

1903

Jean-Jacques Henner was a French painter noted for his use of painting nudes, religious subjects and portraits. He was born at Bernwiller, Alsace. Henner began his studies in art as a pupil of Michel Martin Drolling and François-Édouard Picot. In 1848, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and took the Prix de Rome with a painting of Adam and Eve finding the Body of Abel in 1858. In Rome, he was guided by Flandrin and painted four pictures for the gallery at Colmar among other works. Henner first exhibited Bather Asleep at the Salon in 1863 and subsequently contributed Chaste Susanna in 1865, now in the Musée d'Orsay. The Levite of the Tribe of Ephraim (1898) was awarded a first-class medal. Among other professional distinctions, Henner also took a Grand Prix for painting at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1873, Officer in 1878 and Commander in 1889. In 1889, Henner succeeded Cabanel in the Institut de France. Henner's most widely known work is his 1885 portrait of Saint Fabiola. Although the original is now lost, it was copied by artists around the world for devotional purposes. Henner had numerous pupils; among them were the American painter Mathilde Mueden Leisenring and the Romanian artist Dimitrie Serafim. From 1874–89, organized with Carolus-Duran, what he called "the studio of the ladies" for women were not allowed entry to the École des Beaux-Arts. Some also served as his models. One of these was Dorothy Tennant who later married Henry Morton Stanley. Henner died at age 76 in Paris.