HENNER, JEAN JACQUES (1829-1905), French painter, was born on the 5th of March 1829 at Dornach (Alsace). At first a pupil of Drolling and of Picot, he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1848, and took the Prix de Rome with a painting of Adam and Eve finding the Body of Abel (1858). At Rome he was guided by Flandrin, and, among other works, painted four pictures for the gallery at Colmar. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1863 a Bather Asleep, and subsequently contributed Chaste Susanna (1865); Byblis turned into a Spring (1867); The Magdalene (1878); Portrait of M. Hayem (1878); Christ Entombed (1879); Saint Jerome (1881); Herodias (1887); A Study (1891); Christ in His Shroud, and a Portrait of Carolus-Duran (1896); a Portrait of Mlle Fouquier (1897); The Levite of the Tribe of Ephraim (1898), for which a first-class medal was awarded to him; and The Dream (1900). Among other professional distinctions Henner also took a Grand Prix for painting at the Paris International Exhibition of 1900. He was made Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1873, Officer in 1878 and Commander in 1889. In 1889 he succeeded Cabanel in the Institut de France.

See E. Bricon, Psychologie d'art (Paris, 1900); C. Phillips, Art Journal (1888); F. Wedmore, Magazine of Art (1888).

Source: Entry on the artist in the 1911 Edition Encyclopedia.