Soft, gestural, calm and sensual. This is how Henner tries to redefine his oeuvres, while capturing his self-expression
The aim(s) of this "Alsatian" exhibition
Unknown or popular, the works of Jean-Jacques Henner is difficult to approach due to his sensuality and his portrait, but do you know him "well"?
This is why the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg (or Strasbourg Fine Arts Museum) is presenting the works of this Alsatian painter, in the capital of Alsace. Featuring more than 130 works (90 Paintings and 40 graphic works), the show is a walkthrough in his career, from his early years to his departure to Rome and Paris.
His early years, from Alsace to Rome, from classic to popular
Jean-Jacques Henner, was born in the 5 March 1829 in the small Alsatian town of Bernwiller. And, as he enrolled for the Collège d'Altkirch, he took drawing classes with Charles Goutzwiller, an artist and art historian. During those two years (1841-1843), Henner developed his first step into art.
But, as the years passed, his father too in 1844. Therefore, Henner will depart from the southern part of Alsace and move to Strasbourg. A cultural hub of the time, with the Museums of fine arts and the cabinet of drawings and prints. He therefore saw many masterpieces, many of them lost due to the 1870s bombing of the museum...
Nonetheless, he had the change to have a good education in Strasbourg due to his training with Gabriel Guérin, from 1844 and 1846. While Guérin was an academic painter, he encouraged the young artist to travel to Paris and to study with the Alsatian painter Michel Martin Drölling from 1846 until 1851.
During those Parisian years, he learned a lot, from creating copy's of endless masterpiece at the Louvre to the basic of paintings: preparing a canvas, making a grid, perspective, and so on.
As the years passed, the felt like he needed to do something more. Therefore, from 1851 to 1855, he attempts the Grand Prix de Rome, but without success. But has he perceived and learn, he finally won it in 1858 with Adam et Eve, Finding the Body of Abel.
War, salon, commission and trips
While this 1869 work was presented at the annual Salon, in Paris, Henner was already enrolled into the war. Nonetheless, the 1870 and 1871 was the start of the war and the lost of Alsace and Lorraine, the conflict between the French and the German became more complex.
Moreover, the France was against the German, while they were against Prussia. While all of this happens "at the front", a young and rich women from Thann (in Alsace) gave Henner a commission to painted "Alsace, Elle attend", a singular and pivotal work in his career.
At the same moment, he became a member of the jury of the Salon and had the pleasure to become part of the Légion d'Honneur.
Nonetheless, all of those works gave him a comfortable life, he even had his first commission in America, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. But, he had a bigger idea in mind : equality.
Therefore, he opens with Carolus-Duran an "Atelier des dames", a feminine version of the artist studio, where women would learn the basic of painting, sculpture and so on.
20 Years of endless success and recognition
Artistically speaking, he received the commission for the Salle des Autorités at la Sorbonne University, in 1898. But, as the year passed, Henner too.
To commemorate his life and artistic style, he had an exhibition at the Cercle Volley (in Paris), in 1907. And after the war, Marie Henner purchased a Hôtel particulier at the 43 avenue de Villiers, to exhibited his works, while giving it to the state.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Strasbourg Fine Arts Museum
Date: 08.10.2021 – 24.01.2022
Curator: Cécile Marcle, Maeva Abillard and Isabelle de Lannoy
Ticket: Available at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Strasbourg Fine Arts Museum
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg
2, place du Château, Strasbourg
Phone: +33 (0)3 68 98 50 00