Jean-Paul Henry was born on 3 April 1945 in Melun as the eldest of five children. "A wise child, too wise" says his sister Marie-Elisabeth. The beginning of his schooling is normal, but when he enters the sixth, his teachers worry about his difficulties in communicating. He paces the high school yard with incoherent remarks. "Henry you're crazy! " Cried his comrades ". 1961, Jean-Paul had to leave scool and also end his academic career. While psychiatrists took care of him, he is employed part-time by a benevolent horticulturist. 1975, during sessions of psychotherapy, Jean-Paul begins to draw. A passion, but rather a necessity, which lasted nearly thirty years! Piles and stacks of drawings will literally invade the family home. His mother died in 1991, then his father on November 29, 2005. Six days later, on December 5, 2005, Jean-Paul died following a hemorrhage linked to a stress ulcer. He could not bear the passing-away of his father.
Jean-Paul Henry leaves a strong work, overwhelming, disproportionate. A work that goes beyond the beautiful academic, beyond the beautiful decorative. It comes from another side (that of schizophrenia), from another solitude too. It has gone beyond the red line of our reason ..( Michel Leroux )