Jane Henriot

Henriot was born in 21 Rue de la Tour-d'Auvergne, 9th arrondissement of Paris, Île-de-France, France. Her mother Marie Henriette Alphonsine Grossin was also an actress and model for Renoir. Henriot used the same surname as a stage name as her mother, who was known as Henriette Henriot.

She studied at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Paris.^[2] where she became the mistress of actor and director Charles le Bargy,^[2] who was her professor at the time.^[2] He eventually left her to marry Madame Simone, who was no happier with her than he had been with Henriot.^[3]

Henriot posed for the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in the painting Fillette au chapeau bleu (English: Little girl in blue hat) in 1881 when she was still a child.^[4]

Henriot made her debut at the Comédie-Française as a leading actress as Myrtha in La Douceur de croire by Jacques Normand on 8 July 1899.^[2] Le Monde artiste remarked Henriot was a "little dreamlike and charming infant whose sweet voice made one think of the chirping of birds, a delicious creature, very cute in its juvenile grace" (March 11, 1900, p. 156). She was loved by both the public and critics.

Plays that Henriot acted in at the Comédie-Française from 8 July 1899:

• Myrtha in La Douceur de croire by Jacques Normand
• Sylvette in Les Romanesques by Edmond Rostand
• Hippolyta (Hippolyte) in L'Étourdi ou les Contretemps by Molière
• Bertrade in Grisélidis by Armand Silvestre and Eugène Morand.
• Lucile in Le Dépit amoureux by Molière
• Isabelle in Le Légataire universel by Jean-François Regnard
• Lucinde in Le Médecin malgré lui by Molière
• Céphise in Andromaque by Jean Racine
• Juliette in Diane de lys by Alexandre Dumas fils
• Zaïre in Bajazet by Jean Racine, which she played from 1 March 1900 until her death.

Grave of Jane Henriot and her mother Henriette Henriot

 

 

Just before noon on 8 March 1900, after a matinee where she was playing the role of the confidant Zaïde in Jean Racine's play Bajazet at the Comédie-Française, an explosion and fire broke out.^[5] Henriot was on the fourth floor of the theater.^[4] Her dresser had a better knowledge of place and could find her own way out and through a window.^[4] Mary Marquet told her to get out of the fire, however Henriot was trying to find her little dog, which was a gift from Le Bargy, whom she had recently broken-up with.^[4] Henriot was still wandered around the building when she died of asphyxiation.^[4] Her body was later found, but it was unrecognisable, her face blackened, burnt hair and body convulsed.^[4] Her mother identified the body in the morgue.^[4]

 

Two days later, a large crowd gathered at her funeral, and the convoy passed through Paris to the church of Saint-Honoré-d'Eylau, the Montmartre cemetery.^[4] Shortly after her death, the Comédie-Française wanted a portrait of Henriot.^[2] On the advice of her mother, they gave the portrait painter Carolus-Duran the task of making a portrait of Henriot, having previous painted another actress Jeanne Samary in 1885.^[2] Carolus-Duran had known Henriot and was inspired by the photographs taken by Reutlinger, which were published on postcards.^[2]

A year after her death on 8 March 1901, a memorial service was held in Saint-Roch, Paris,^[4] where her friends went to her tomb which was sculpted by Denys Puech above a white marble monument by the architect Marcel Dourgnon with the following words having been engraved on the base of the tomb: "À Jane Henriot, la Comédie-Française" (English: To Jane Henriot, the French-Comedy),^[4] with an inscription taken from an article by Émile Faguet: ...Elle est venue, Elle a souri, Elle a passé! (English: She came, She smiled, She has passed!)^[4]

• Belle Époque
• Theatre of France

• Henry Lyonnet, Dictionnaire des comédiens français

•   Media related to Jane Henriot at Wikimedia Commons