The French artist Claire Hénault grew up in Paris, graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts in 1978, and has devoted much of her career since then to developing her skill and talent in engraving. Her work has earned numerous prizes, and encompasses a distinctive world in which eroticism, humour, mythology and fantasy coalesce.

Hénault describes herself as particularly drawn to the figurative ‘because she has always liked being told stories’, whether through fairy tales, mythology or novels. Her own imagery similarly draws on stories, dreams and the symbols of the collective imagination, and her repertoire includes the signs of the zodiac, the seven deadly sins and the four elements, as well as tales and fables.

In 1996 she illustrated a bibliophile edition of C.-F. Ramuz’s La guérison des maladies (The Healing of Diseases), and in 1998 she collaborated with five other engravers on Ainsi va … (That’s How It Goes … ), a collection exploring time and the seasons. In 2003 she moved her studio to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, south-west of Paris, where she continued her own work while teaching drawing and leading engraving workshops for children. She is now based at Sainte-Pazanne, near Nantes in north-western France.

Her engravings inhabit an elaborate, baroque and often surreal world populated by fantastical creatures, richly ornamented settings, and predominantly female characters. As she explains, she is interested in ‘the human comedy’, while the female figure offers endless possibilities for costumes, lace, frills and elaborate hairstyles. Her affinity with surrealism is significant – she has described its interest in the unconscious as particularly close to her own approach.

The burin –  the hardened steel cutting chisel with an angled point – is Hénault’s preferred tool, allowing her to work directly into the copper with extraordinary precision. She regards engraving as ‘a form of sublimation of drawing through precision’, and particularly values the permanence of the engraved line. Her preference for monochrome further intensifies the intricate linework, creating what she describes as a dimension of mystery that draws the viewer into an imaginary world.

Claire Hénault’s website (in French) can be found here.

Similar artists

Michael Ayrton – British sculptor and engraver of mythological subjects.
Marcus Behmer – German engraver of finely ornamented, fantastical literary scenes.
Jean Boullet – French illustrator of baroque, fantastical erotic imagery.
Uwe Bremer – German engraver of intricate surreal, fantastical scenes.
Leonor Fini – French surrealist painter of dreamlike, mythological female figures.
Mark Severin – Belgian-British engraver of classical and mythological subjects.
John Buckland Wright – British engraver of finely worked classical mythological scenes.