Lucien Felix Henry was born in 1850 in Provence, in the south of France. He arrived in Paris to study art in 1867 and was accepted into Gerome's studio at the Ecoles des Beaux Arts. His studies were disrupted by the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of Paris. He played a leading role in the popular movement to defend the Paris Commune in 1871 as Chef de la Legion, responsible for the defence of the 14th arrondissement. After their defeat, Henry, along with some 4000 other Communards, was incarcerated in the French penal colony of New Caledonia for seven years. In 1879 the Communards were given amnesty and Henry arrived in Sydney.

That year the International Exhibition was held in Sydney, ushering in a decade of prosperous growth for the colony. Henry successfully argued for state involvement in art education and by the end of the decade he had become a widely respected teacher and artist at Sydney Technical College. His Parisian art education had encouraged interdisciplinary work between the arts and industry which he sought to foster locally. Coinciding with the movement towards federation, Henry expressed a strong desire to see the development of an 'Australian Style'. Henry proposed to reinvigorate the classical language of decoration with stylised versions of Australian flora and fauna as 'motives for the decoration of any construction from a cottage to a public building'. His major project was to be a book entitled 'Australian Decorative Arts' for which he made some one hundred watercolour designs between 1889-91. In 1891 Henry returned to Paris to seek a publisher. The accompanying text, however, remained largely unwritten and the severe economic depression of the 1890s made publication of such a lavish work impossible. Henry died in 1896 before the book could be published.

The watercolour designs from the unpublished book, of which this is one, were given to the Museum in 1911 by Elizabeth Catherine Sea. The illustrations were championed at the time of acquisition by the Museum's director, R T Baker, who shared Henry's interest in the potential of Australian imagery to define a distinctively Australian school of decorative art. Baker described Henry as 'an artist possessing real genius, and his originality in design and other fields of fine and Applied Art will live long in the annals of New South Wales technical education'. However, the illustrations were subsequently overlooked for half a century until they were rediscovered in a storeroom in 1977.

The intended location of this celing, cornice and wall design is not known, although it would not have been out of place with Henry's proposals for the hotel Australia or Sydney Town Hall. Completed in 1885, the Sydney GPO features a similar 'blackfellow's head' as an allegory of Australia, among several other national keystones. Henry's placement of this indigenous representation among stylised waratah flowers and leaves is a more perplexing statement.

The watercolour designs from Henry's unpublished book were given to the Museum in 1911 by Elizabeth Catherine Sea, the aunt of Fanny Broadhurst (Henry's former student and partner).

Design, 'Cornice Corner, Blackfellow's Head', from unpublished book, 'Australian Decorative Arts', watercolour over pencil, made by Lucien Henry, Australia / France, 1889-1891

Illustrated book plate, one of a series for a proposed "Australian Decorative Arts" book by Lucien Henry: Design for cornice featuring Aboriginal head with waratah frescoe panelling in blue, green, red, white, & gold in a black outline, whole design in shape of domed archway.(OF).

Made: 1889 - 1891

P3022

1889 - 1891

490 mm

435 mm