Henri Lerolle was a pupil of Louis Lamothe. From 1874 he specialised in religious painting and several of his canvases decorate churches and public buildings: Baptism of Two Saints in the church of Créteil; Apostles' Communion in the chapel of the Capuchin friars; Albert the Great in the Monastery and St James in the Sorbonne; Flight into Egypt in the Dominican chapel in Paris; and Knowledge and Truth Instructing Youth, a fresco for the town hall in Paris. He exhibited at the Salon de Paris from 1868 to 1928. In 1890 he moved to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, of which he was one of the founders, and regularly exhibited at its Salon. A jury member at the Exposition Universelle of 1889, he won a gold medal in 1900. He was decorated with the Légion d'Honneur in 1889.

Patronage

Lerolle owned several canvases by Maurice Denis including Catholic Mystery, and is considered to be Denis's first important patron. In fact, Denis claimed that Lerolle "discovered him." In 1892 Lerolle commissioned Denis to paint a ceiling mural for his home entitled "L'Echelle dans le Feuillage" ("Ladder in the Foliage"). Additionally, Lerolle was a friend and patron to Degas and Renoir, the latter of whom painted several portraits of Lerolle's daughters and of Lerolle himself. Lerolle also owned works by Fantin-Latour (who painted Lerolle's wife, Madeleine Escudier), Corot, Gauguin, and others.

Madame Lerolle's sister, Jeanne, was married to the composer Ernest Chausson and the Lerolle home, at 20, avenue Duquesne was a meeting place not only for artists, but also musicians of the day including Vincent d'Indy, Claude Debussy and Paul Dukas. Having met via Lerolle, Chausson also commissioned works by Maurice Denis. Lerolle was also a violinist and composer.

Debussy dedicated several piano works to Lerolle's daughter Yvonne (b. 1877) including Three Images in 1894. Yvonne Lerolle was a friend to Julie Manet, daughter of the painter Berthe Morisot.

Museum and Gallery Holdings

Boston Museum of Fine Arts: By a River
Bucharest (Muz. National de Arta al României): Flore
Budapest (Magyar Nemzeti Múz.): Bathing
Carcassonne: Arrival of the Shepherds
Ixelles: Self-portrait
Le Havre: Woman Harvesting
Minneapolis (Walker Art Center): Harvest
Mulhouse: Women Harvesting
New York (Metropolitan Mus. of Art): At the Organ (oil on canvas)
Nice: Jacob at Laban's House
Paris (MAM): Bathing; In the Country
Paris (MBA): Teaching Knowledge; Coronation of Knowledge
Paris (Mus. du Petit Palais)
Semur-en-Auxois: Mary Magdalene Weeping; The Holy Virgin

San Francisco Fine Art Museum