FRENCH ARTIST DESIGNED FLASH AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT HOUSE , PROMOTED FLORA AND FAUNA

 

Sentenced to death because of his  involvement in the  1871  Paris  uprising  , painter, sculptor , designer and  teacher,  Lucien  Henry, was reprieved  and  sent   to   New  Caledonia.

A militant socialist and a member of the First International, he had contributed to the newspaper La Resistance. During the Franco-Prussian war and the  siege of Paris (1870-1871) he was a member of the National Guard.

On March 11, 1871, he was elected leader of the legion of the 14th arrondissement and became “Colonel Henry”. On April 3, he took part in the exit from Chatillon (Battle of Meudon),where the communards were defeated by the forces of the Third Republic. During this unfortunate offensive he was arrested , and sentenced to death in 1872.

Reprieved, sent to New Caledonia , at the end of  his sentence he went to Sydney .There  he married  a French widow , the very talented  Juliette Rastoul , whose  husband  had  also been  expelled to  New Caledonia.   Henry  became  a  prominent  figure  in  the  colonial  art  world .

The above  extensively illustrated  book, priced  at  $90, in  the Douglas Stewart Fine Books, Melbourne, list , presents the extraordinary and little-known work of  Lucien Henry (1850-1896), whose vision for an Australian school of decorative arts and  design was developed in the period leading up  to  Australian federation.

In 1888 he arranged the New South Wales court at the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition. At one stage he designed  what was described as a " majestic "  stillborn  parliament  house .

The  Australian Dictionary of Biography states Henry , active as an artist and teacher, 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 colours , fauna and  flora in decorative arts .  In   great demand in  the  colony, he  painted many portraits , produced  busts and  designed  the  stained- glass  windows of  the  Sydney Town  Hall.

On  May  25,1891, Henry returned to France after a farewell banquet. In that year he published in Paris the Legend of the Waratah and dedicated it to Fred Broomfield, prominent in Labor circles in New South Wales. He died soon after from TB  contracted in  New Caledonia . 

Juliette Henry , who got a divorce  from  Lucien,  died  in Sydney and was buried in the Catholic section of Waverley cemetery. Before her death she had lectured on French literature in Tasmania and wrote French plays that were  translated by Lady Hamilton, wife of the governor. The following   tributes  were  published  upon  her death  :

‘There is no personality more colourful in Sydney than Mme Juliette Henry’, whose affability and distinction were praised by The Sun of  February 26, 1897. She was, wrote correspondent ‘Tasma’ in 1898, ‘one of the most large-hearted and intellectual women in Australia […] a tall, handsome, commanding woman, with a charm of manner and wide culture’ who was one of Sydney’s ‘most remarkable sisters’.

It seems she made an impression on the famous  French  writer  and politician Victor Hugo-The Hunchback of Notre Dame  and Les Miserables- when she approached  him for help  in her  first  husband's  case . 

(French. Australia. Art.)