ArtistD'Anty, Henry

Artist Years1910-1998

Artist NationalityFrench

TitleClown with Saxophone

Year1961

MediumPainting > Oil

DimensionsCanvas: 16 X 4.5 inches

Accession NumberRC1906

NotesHenry d'Anty, was a French painter born Maurice Henry on 8 September 1910 in the Belleville district of Paris, son of Léon Henry and Élise Maisonnave, and died on 4 December 1998 in Villejuif.

During the war of 1914–1918, his father was mobilized as a nurse. Meanwhile, with his mother, they take refuge in Saint-Cast where he is raised with some freedom by his grandmother Maisonnave. After nursery school, primary school and the supplementary course at Saint-Maurice, he attended the École supérieure de commerce de Paris for two years.

From a young age, he was attracted to drawing. He devoted his moments of freedom to pencil, inspired by the surrounding landscapes. After graduating from school, he began working with his father as a business representative, but he got up very early in the morning to draw before leaving for work. He draws and paints on cartons, canvases and everything he finds and can serve as a support for him.

In 1934, he married Nelly Blondel. This marriage is part of the world of painting, because the young woman is herself a painter. Three children are born from this union: Liliane, Jean-Pierre and Nicole. Meanwhile, the war separates the young couple. Henry d'Anty was mobilized in 1939 and assigned to a health unit. The family disperses. The grandmother, Elise Henry, takes the children to Escos Labastide. Henry d'Anty was a prisoner at Berck in 1940. He escaped in 1942 and on his return to civilian life, he divorced.

Henry d'Anty studied art at the Julian Academy and developed a lot of affinity with artists from the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. His palette is colorful. It is dominated by a powerful ruby red to which it usually combines ochre and blue. D'Anty painted large impasions that superimposed on each other and saturate the canvas with their light intensity. Then he encircles the essential shapes of the painting by underlining them here and there, by black keys. The material, the brilliance and the choice of colors in his paintings are reminiscent of enamel.

D'Anty paints scenes of rural life, country festivals and still lifes. It is inspired by Brittany, Béarn and northern France in its landscapes despite an inspiring Montmartroise life.

The records of the Petit Palais show that his works have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, as well as in the main French salons.

Many critics such as Guy Bataille, Jean Chabanon, Paul Reboux and André Warnod became interested in his work. His name appears in Le Bénézit and Pierre Morgane devotes to him a book which appeared in 1962 at Éditions Maubert.

Anty's works can be found in the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum in Albi, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Chrysler Museum of Art (USA), as well as in the museums of Warsaw and Barcelona.
(source: wikipedia.org)