Michel Henry's works

This is a collection of commentaries on Michel Henry's oil paintings by Takeda Yasuhiro of Galerie Adeka. Galerie Adeka was the sole distributor of Michel Henry in Japan from 1995 to 2016. Since Michel Henry's death in 2016, we have continued to sell Michel Henry paintings. Galerie Adeka is the only Michel Henry copyright management and appraisal agency in Japan. We have only collected commentaries on paintings that have already sold out. For commentaries on paintings currently for sale, click on the image of the painting to view the work's details page.

Red Symphony by Michel Henry, oil painting size 50

Work Description

I have been looking at paintings from the Renaissance to the Ecole de Paris, but I have never seen an artist layering red on red to create such beautiful, shining pictures.
Michel Henry studied under two professors at the Beaux-Arts (Paris National School of Fine Arts). He studied at Narbonne for preparatory courses and Chapelin Midi for his main courses. Narbonne was a professor of drawing, and Chapelin Midi was a master of color. Buffet was also in the Narbonne class, but he dropped out without learning color and continued to draw with simplified drawings for the rest of his life.
Chaplin Midi said that Michel Henry had surpassed him when he saw that Michel Henry had succeeded in painting with red as a bright color. In conventional color theory, red is classified as a dark color, but Michel Henry painted bright and shining paintings with red as the base color. He painted red on red, creating a beautiful harmony of colors and drawing beautiful shapes. He succeeded in a feat that no one had accomplished since the Renaissance. Michel Henry used paints of 30 different reds from different countries. Red was a fateful color for Michel Henry. It was the color that made his natural talent shine.

Gallery Adeka Yasuhiro Takeda

Michel Henry <Transparent Red> Oil painting 100x100cm

<Works exhibited at the Louvre Museum Exhibition by the National Fine Arts Association>

Exposee au salon de la societe nationale des beaux-arts au carrousel du Louvre>

A red background covers the entire canvas. Red flowers are painted on the red with a beautiful texture. The texture of the clearly defined irregular flowers resonates with each other, creating a beautiful harmony. The lines that connect the edges of the glasses on both sides, starting from the flower at the top of the center of the canvas, form a beautiful large triangle. The red background emits light, as if it were being illuminated from behind. This work is perfect in terms of composition, color, light, and texture, and it makes you feel dizzy as if you are being sucked into the red canvas.

Gallery Adeka Yasuhiro Takeda

Michel Henry's "Bouquet Panache" Oil painting No. 10

I don't think this painting needs any explanation. It's a painting filled with universal beauty. The bouquet is a symphony of gorgeous colors, painted with a wonderful combination of red colors. The title Bouquet Panache means a mixed bouquet. In other words, it means a bouquet made with various flowers. Panache means mixed in French, and the drink that the French often drink, which is a mixture of beer and soda, is called panache. The bouquet is made of pink and violet petals and white baby's breath. The main flower is the red coquelicot petals, but the other flowers cannot be identified from the petals, but judging from the slender leaves, they seem to be iris flowers. The colors are unified in the red family, and the green of the leaves and stems is an accent. In terms of the color wheel, the colors range from orange, which is close to yellow, to pink, which is close to blue, to violet. The background is painted with a transparent pink and milky white color on a diagonally crossing line. Light comes in from behind the background, making the bouquet stand out in a three-dimensional way. The light seems to come in from the left rear, and the left half is milky white, while the right half is a deep pink. The light is fully absorbed into the canvas, and the harmony of the three-dimensional petals' colors sends a dizzying, pleasant shock to the eyes and brain. This is a masterpiece of a bouquet.

Gallery Adeka Yasuhiro Takeda

Michel Henry "Eiffel Tower and Coquelicot" Oil painting No. 25

Work Description

Michel Henry never stopped challenging himself, guided by his imagination, until the very end. This painting was painted in early 2015, one of his last years. The form of the Eiffel Tower in the background is simplified and painted like a transparent veil or a white illusion. Black branches hang down from the top to the left of the Eiffel Tower. Behind the black branches and the translucent Eiffel Tower, an intense red object resembling a red petal is painted. This continuous red object looks like the petals of a Coquelicot, which Michel Henry loved all his life, scattered in the air. The flurry of Coquelicot petals covering the entire sky is fitting for Michel Henry's life. The petals of the Coquelicot are filtered through the transparent veil of the Eiffel Tower and are thinly visible. They can be seen between the black branches. They have lost their petal shape, but to me they look like Coquelicot petals. In the foreground, as always, a bouquet of red Coquelicots is vividly painted. The petals at the top of the bouquet are white, resonating with the translucent Eiffel Tower in the background. Below the bouquet of Coquelicot, there are several red fruits, presumably apples or plums. Whenever Michel Henry painted a bouquet, he would place several fruits near the bottom of the bouquet to balance the composition. Many of these fruits are painted in succession. This semi-abstract painting, depicting Coquelicot, its partner fruit, and Paris in the background, which the artist continued to paint throughout his life, is a moving painting that is fitting for the last work and symbolizes all of Michel Henry's paintings. From this painting, we can hear A Dieu and Ode to Joy by Michel Henry, the painter of flowers and happiness. It is a symphony of explosive joy.

Gallery Adeka Yasuhiro Takeda

Michel Henry, "The Pont des Invalides", oil painting, size 50, created in 2013

It is rare for Michel Henry to paint such an assorted bouquet of flowers. Michel Henry usually paints one type of flower and places it against a landscape to highlight the beauty of that flower, but in this painting, the bouquet features wild roses, poppies, and hazel petals in various warm colors on top of and even inside the transparent compote, and the colors resonate with each other. Rather than the flowers being arranged in the compote, it gives the impression of movement as if they are radiating into the air. Warm-colored fruits are painted around the transparent compote, echoing the colors of the petals, and are integrated with the colors of the petals inside the compote. Behind the bouquet is the surface of the Seine. The surface of the water is dark in the foreground, and as it goes further away, it becomes a brighter blue, reflecting the color of the sky. Beyond that is a bridge. No matter how you look at it, this bridge is not the Pont des Invalides in the title, but the Pont Alexandre III next to the Pont des Invalides. The Alexander III Bridge has girders on both sides of the river, but no supporting girders in the river. The bridge is supported by arched girders on both sides, and the two tall columns of the bridge on both sides of the river are decorated with gold carvings. The title "Les Invalides Bridge" is thought to come from the view from the bridge. The bouquet was probably placed on the railing of the Pont des Invalides. The painting depicts the Seine and the Alexander III Bridge, illuminated in the faint light of the moment when the world changes from darkness to light, just before and after the sun begins to rise and appears above the ground. The vivid colors of the petals stand out even in the faint light. Here is the drama of the light in the few minutes before dawn.

Gallery Adeka Yasuhiro Takeda

Michel Henry <Three Roses> Oil painting No. 12

Work Description

Michel Henry's colors have the brilliance of jewels. Christian Dior knew it too. Around 1990, Christian Dior ordered Jean-Franco Ferré, who was the creative director at the time, to dye mink fur with the colors of jewels. Ferré chose Michel Henry as his research partner. The two spent three months in a laboratory, experimenting with dyeing mink fur with the red of ruby, the blue of sawya, the green of emerald, and the amber of topaz. They succeeded in producing a prototype mink coat, but the production costs were so high that Christian Dior gave up on selling it. Apparently the prototype was purchased by a wealthy Arab. The background of these three roses is the color of deep topaz. Blue and transparent light leaks through the gaps in the lattice pattern in the background. Topaz can be pale amber, or it can be dark brown with amber-colored parts that reflect light. The three roses seem to smile joyfully in the play of light that filters through the topaz background and the crystal vase that reflects it and filters out the brownish light.

Gallery Adeka Yasuhiro Takeda

Michel Henry <Palm Spring Rose> Oil painting No. 40 2021

Work Description

Palm Springs is a tourist city located about 150 km east of Los Angeles. Michel Henry went to the American Findlay Gallery for an exhibition every year for 20 years during his time at the Findlay Gallery. The Findlay Gallery has its main store in New York, but it also had branches in Paris, London, and Long Beach. In the late 1990s, Michel Henry had a contract with the Alexandre Leodouze Gallery, which has its main store in Cannes and a branch in Paris. The Alexandre Leodouze Gallery exhibited in Los Angeles at the end of the 20th century, so they invited Michel Henry to hold a Michel Henry exhibition. That year, Michel Henry went to Los Angeles after finishing an exhibition at a department store in Tokyo. Palm Springs is a basin, and it seems that there are small hills and fairly tall mountains that are covered in snow even in summer. Michel Henry must have visited there as a tourist in between work. Mother and baby roses stand tall and joyfully in the great American wilderness.

Gallery Adeka Yasuhiro Takeda

Michel Henry "Blue Shadow" Oil painting No. 12

Work Description

A pale pink wild rose and plums are depicted in a crystal container against a blue background. The brie in the background shines like a jewel when lit from behind. Gian-Franco Ferré, an Italian brand, served as creative director for Christian Dior in France from 1989 to 1996. At that time, Christian Dior tried to sell mink fur colored with jewels. People in Paris knew that Michel Henry's colors were transparent and shiny. Michel Henry's blue is sapphire, red is ruby, green is emerald, and golden yellow is topaz. Christian Dior invited Michel Henry and locked Jean-Franco Ferré and Michel Henry in a laboratory for three months. They dyed the mink fur in the splendid colors of ruby ​​red, sawai blue, emerald green, and topaz gold, but because they used very expensive dyes, there was no prospect of selling it. The prototype mink coat was apparently purchased by a wealthy Arabian. This work is set against the backdrop of sapphire sparkle, and the transparent crystal container also reflects sawai blue. The wild roses and transparent baby's breath in the crystal vase, and the plums in the crystal compote are given elegant colors of pale rose and wine, creating a calm and elegant painting. The work captures the graceful shine of sawai blue with plenty of light.

Gallery Adeka Yasuhiro Takeda

Michel Henry <Eiffel Tower and Mirabeau Bridge> Oil painting No. 40

[Work description]

In 2007, a Japanese-French artist exhibition was held in Yokohama, and Patrice de la Parriere, president of Univers des arts, visited Japan from France. This commemorative work was exhibited on that occasion. The Coquelicot and cherries in the foreground create a solid triangular composition, and the Seine narrows in the distance, painted in convergent perspective. The composition of the water-based Coquelicot and cherries and the horizontal composition of the Seine give a sense of three-dimensional space. The pale blue of the background and the red of the Coquelicot that stands out three-dimensionally contrast beautifully. The blue and pale rose-colored sky and water give a gentle joy. It is early summer, the day is about to end, and the people of Paris are relaxing in the long summer twilight.

Gallery Adeka Yasuhiro Takeda