Françoise Henry

Françoise Henry (16 June 1902 – 10 February 1982) was a scholar of early Irish art, archaeologist, and art historian. While at University College Dublin (UCD), she founded the Department of History of European Painting in 1965, and was head until she retired in 1974.

Early life and education Henry was born in Paris on 16 June 1902, and brought up in Limousin. She was the only child of Jeanne Henry (née Clément) and René Henry, deputy chef de cabinet to the president of the French Chamber of Deputies, professor at l'École des Sciences Politiques, and writer. Her father left the family when Henry was young. Henry's grandfather, Charles Clément (1821 - 1887), was an art writer and philosopher, and his influence was felt through Henry's visits to her grandmother near Paris.

Henry attended the Lycée Molière in Paris from 1914 to 1920, and then graduated from both the École du Louvre in 1925 and the Sorbonne. Whilst at the Sorbonne, Henry attended lectures by Salomon Reinach, Robert Rey, and Henri Hubert. She worked as an assistant to Hubert in the Musée des Antiquités Nationales, going on to join the staff in 1927. One of her theses was a full survey of prehistoric burials in the Côte d'Or. During this time one of her teachers, Henri Focillon, became a mentor to Henry. with her first appointment being to the French department in 1932. Her first major work, Irish art in the early Christian period, was published in 1940, and focused on an area of study largely untouched since Margaret Stokes in the 1800s. The book charts Irish art from the prehistoric up to the twelfth century, covering sculpture, manuscripts, and metalwork. In the 1960s, it was expanded and updated to three volumes, published first in French and then English. She was amongst a group of eminent Irish scholars who were celebrated as part of the RIA's Women on Walls exhibition.

In 2016, alongside the physicist Sheila Tinney, the scientist Phyllis Clinch, and the literary scholar Eleanor Knott, Henry was included in the "Women on Walls Project" which featured the first four women to be members of the RIA. On Friday 2 June 2017 a special symposium was held to honour Henry. An exhibition of her original papers, notes, journals and sketches titled "Françoise Henry and the history of Irish art" was held in the RIA. In April 2018 a Library Lunchtime Lecture was held in the Royal Irish Academy, titled "Françoise Henry at UCD: Towards a history of Art History in Ireland", while a collection of her textual and visual material can be found in the archives of University College Dublin.

Her photographic contributions to the Conway Library were, as of 2020, being digitised by the Courtauld Institute of Art as part of the Courtauld Connects project.

Selected publications

Henry, Francoise (1965-1970) Irish Art. Three Volumes. (1) In the Early Christian Period to A.D. 800 (2) During the Viking Invasions 800-1020 A.D. (3) In the Romanesque Period 1020-1170 A.D. New York: Cornell University Press, 1965, '65, 70. Uniform set. Pictorial dust jackets T. Marquardt, Janet published/edited "Francoise Henry in County Mayo: The Inishkea Journals" in 2012