Claire Hénault’s engravings encompass a remarkable range of moods and approaches, from the weightless economy of a few flowing lines to compositions of extraordinary density and intricacy. Her women recline, embrace, dream, while animals, plants, costumes, mirrors, musical instruments and fantastic companions become the starting point for a small visual story.

The combination of sensuality and imagination was already evident to critics early in her career. A 1988 review described the poetry and fantasy inhabiting her almond-eyed women, praising the precision of her line and the wide range of greys achieved in her black-and-white engravings.

Other contemporary reviewers found in her work a strange and sometimes erotic universe of masked figures, elaborate costumes and playful symbolism, while noting the delicacy and sophistication of her compositions.

Hénault herself has described the burin as the tool that most faithfully translates her pencil line onto the copper, allowing her to move between fine and broad strokes and to create an exceptionally subtle range of tones. The result can be seen particularly clearly here: even her most elaborate engravings retain the immediacy of drawing.

Writing in 2005, Élisabeth David described each engraving as a small story and a universe in itself – an apt description of the breadth of Hénault’s work.