Lucien Felix Henry (1850-1896), artist, was born at Sisteron, France, son of French parents. He studied under Viollet-le-Duc and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Gérôme. A communard, he was sentenced to death for political offenses in the 1871 Paris commune but was exiled to New Caledonia. In June 1879 after a political amnesty he went to Sydney where on 6 January 1880 he married a widow Juliette Lopes, née Lebeau, according to Presbyterian rites. 'After a struggle' he was appointed instructor at the first modelling school in the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts.... In 1888 he arranged the New South Wales court at the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition. A founder of the Art Society of New South Wales, he was a committee member by 1884 and often exhibited for the society. Active as both an artist and a teacher, Henry worked in many fields including sculpture, modelling, terracotta work, architecture and design. He discovered the artistic possibilities of the waratah and advocated the use of Australian colors, fauna and flora for decorative art. He executed many portraits and busts and designed the stained-glass windows in Sydney Town Hall. His series of Australian designs, now in the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, show his technical skill. He also drafted a 'majestic' design for a stillborn parliament house. Although not a member of the Heidelberg school he sympathized with its efforts to develop a distinctively Australian art, but failed in his own similar ambitions. Handsome, 'with a Victor-Hugo head and the Victor-Hugo enthusiasm', a magnetic personality and tireless energy, Henry exercised a powerful influence for good on Australian sculpture and on his students who included the well-known Benjamin Minns, Sydney Cathels, G. H. Aurousseau and Lucien Dechaineux. ...Henry died on 10 March 1896 at Le Pavé, St Léonard, Haute-Vienne, where he was buried. He left his estate of £23 to Harry André Henry... [http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/henry-lucien-felix-3755] undefined

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