Florence Henri (1893-1982)

Aliases: Florence Coster; Florence Coster-Henri

Professions: Photographer; Painter

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  Fenêtres, 1929

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  FLORENCE HENRI (1893-1982)

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  Composition (plates and mirrors), 1929

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  Photograph: Florence HENRI Honor, 1934 Signé, daté

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Florence Henri Biography

(b New York, 28 June 1893; d Compiègne, Oise, July 1982). Swiss photographer and painter. Born of a French father and German mother, she spent her childhood in Paris, Vienna and the Isle of Wight. When she was 16 she went to Rome, where she came into contact with the Futurists. In Berlin she studied the piano with Egon Petri and Ferruccio Busoni in 1911–14 and painting with Kurt Schwitters at the Staatliche Hochschule für bildenden Künste in 1914. From 1915 to 1919 she attended the Hofmann Schule für Moderne Kunst in Munich. She continued her painting studies in Paris, at the Académie André Lhote in 1922–3 and under Léger and Amédée Ozenfant at the Académie Moderne in 1924–5. Her paintings of this period show the influence of Cubism and Geometric Abstraction, as shown by the brightly coloured Composition (1922; Montrouge, priv. col., see 1979 exh. cat., no. 86). The most significant element of Henri’s artistic training was, however, at the Bauhaus in Dessau, where she was taught by Josef Albers and László Moholy-Nagy in 1927. Under Moholy-Nagy’s influence she became interested in photography and continued his investigations into the possibilities of this medium. To this end she began to use mirrors and panes of glass to alter and multiply the object image, leading to highly complex works such as the still-life Abstract Composition (1929; Genoa, priv. col., see 1979 exh. cat., no. 129) and such portraits as that of Fernand Léger (1934; Genoa, priv. col., see 1979 exh. cat., no. 257). She worked freelance in Paris from 1929 to 1963 as a portrait, advertising and fashion photographer. From 1928 to 1947 she also taught photography and in the 1930s became associated with the CERCLE ET CARRÉ group. From 1963 she lived in Compiègne, where she concentrated on painting.

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