Albany Fine Art : Biography of Henri LEHMANN

Henri LEHMANN

German, 1814-French, 1882

Lehmann Self Portrait

Subtle portrait painter and first class draughtsman who became famous for his graceful portraits and drawings depicting many of the famous men and women of his age – whose reputation is ready to be rediscovered

Born Karl Ernst Rudolf Heinrich Salem Lehmann, known as Henri, in Kiel, Germany, in 1814, he received his earliest artistic training from his father, Leo Lehmann (German, 1782-1859), a portrait and miniature painter, as well as from other local painters in Hamburg. His brother, Rudolf Lehmann (Wilhelm Auguste Rudolf Lehmann, German, 1819–London, 1905) also became a portrait painter and author.

At the age of 17, in 1831, Lehmann travelled to Paris and, on the recommendation of his family's friend, Baron Gérard, he joined Ingres’ studio (Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French, 1780-1867), with whom he was to forge a close and lasting relationship. He became one of Ingres’ most accomplished pupils and approached him in skill, draughtsmanship and range.

In 1835, then aged 21, Lehmann submitted his first work, Departure of the Young Tobias (Kunsthalle, Hamburg), to the Paris Salon (this was the first of a cycle of paintings that would continue until 1866). He was awarded a second class medal for his exhibits, a religious subject and three portraits, genres he would follow for the rest of his life in addition to historical, allegorical and literary subjects. Thereafter Lehmann exhibited regularly at the Paris Salons, winning first class medals in 1840, 1848 and 1855 (Exposition Universelle/Universal Exhibition), where he exhibited no less than 21 paintings.

As a foreigner, Lehmann was not eligible to compete in the Prix de Rome but he travelled there at his own expense in 1838 to join Ingres and to continue his artistic education. He lived in Rome from 1838-41 and worked closely with Ingres, who was by then Director of the Académie de France. His rigorous training was strengthened through his exposure to the paintings of the Italian Renaissance and classical monuments.

Lehmann often collaborated with Ingres and visited him twice in Italy: in a letter home in 1840 he noted his contribution to one of Ingres' paintings, "I'm also working for Monsieur Ingres, which you mustn't tell anyone, for he intends to pass off what I do as his own, after retouching it, of course…". And in Ingres’s painting of Luigi Cherubini and the Muse of Lyric Poetry (1842, Musée du Louvre, Paris), the painting of the figure of the muse is by Lehmann’s hand.

In addition to his admiration for Ingres, Lehmann also admired the painters of the early Renaissance and the religious art of the German Nazarenes, a group of early 19th century German Nazarenes painters who aimed to revive honesty and spirituality in Christian art. Above all, however, he remained an ardent Neoclassicist in the manner of Ingres.

Lehmann returned to settle in Paris in early 1842 and was to remain there for the rest of his life. He was welcomed into fashionable and cultural society and memorably portrayed many of its members in his incisive portraits. He exhibited frequently at the Paris Salon, received many government and church commissions, was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1846, became a French citizen in 1847, opened a studio in the same year, and was elected a member of the Institut de France in 1864. He taught at the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) from 1861 and was appointed Professor in 1875 (-1881). He founded the Lehmann Prize to recognise academic excellence. Two of his most famous students were Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903) and Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891) although they subsequently chose to create a very different style of painting.

Lehmann was a subtle portrait painter and first class draughtsman. He became famous for his graceful portraits and drawings and depicted many of the famous men and women of his age, including his friend, the Hungarian composer, Franz Liszt, and his lover, the French author, Marie, Comtesse d’Agoult (better known by her pseudonym, Daniel Stern), whom he had first met in Rome and with whom he maintained a long correspondence. Other portraits are listed under Individual Works below.

In Paris he also received numerous commissions for large-scale compositions, including decorations for the Palais de Justice, the Salle du Trône (Throne Room) in the Luxembourg Palace (now the Salle des Conférences and the home of the French Senate), the Hôtel de Ville de Paris (destroyed in the Paris Commune uprising of 1871), the Church of Saint-Merri, and the Chapel of the Institute of Jeunes Aveugles.

Lehmann died in Paris in 1882 at the age of 68 and, despite an abundant bibliography and a beautiful exhibition at the Musée Carnavalet (Musée de la Ville de Paris) in 1983 (Henri Lehmann 1814-1882: Portraits et Décors Parisiens), he is currently one of the most under-appreciated (and undervalued) artists of the 19thC. However, the quality of his work is self-evident and his reputation waits to be rediscovered.