Boy portrait

Red chalk drawing heightened with white

Signed lower left

Henri Jules Jean Geoffroy was a pupil of Adam Levasseur. He was known as a painter of childhood charm. At the start of the term, for example, he perfectly captured the innocent charm of schoolchildren. He painted numerous genre scenes, often tinged with the naive style. His dark tones usually match his chosen subjects.

He often placed gray figures on a black background, not letting in more light than needed to illuminate pale faces, as in The Prayer of the Humble or Abandoned .

Distinguished illustrator and appreciated by critics and the public, he illustrated in particular the Contes of Charles Perrault (1897) and Adventures of Tom Thumb by J. Stahl. He exhibited for the first time in 1874 at the Paris Salon, then at the Salon des Artistes Français, of which he became a member in 1883.

He received an honorable mention in 1883, a third class medal in 1886 and a gold medal in 1900 at the Universal Exhibition. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.