Henri Jules Jean Geoffroy was a pupil of Adam Levasseur. He was well-known as a painter of the charm of childhood. In Beginning of Term ( L'Heure de la Rentrée), for example, he exactly caught the innocent charm of schoolchildren. He painted many genre scenes, often falling into miserabilism. His dark tones generally match his chosen subjects. He often placed grey figures on a black background, letting in no more light than was necessary to illuminate the pallid faces, as in Prayer of the Humble or Abandoned. His other works include Visiting Day at the Hospital, Resigned, Convalescents, Night Shelter, Hungry and Treadmill. He was a distinguished illustrator, having illustrated among others the Tales of Charles Perrault (1897) and J. Stahl's Adventures of Tom Thumb. He first exhibited in 1874 at the Salon de Paris and then at the Salon des Artistes Français, of which he became a member in 1883. He was awarded an honourable mention in 1883, a third-class medal in 1886, and a gold medal in 1900 at the Exposition Universelle. He was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur.

Museum and Gallery Holdings

Amiens: Unfortunates
Bayeux: Poor Child
Birmingham: Infant School
Cambrai: Treadmill
Dijon (MBA): Prayer of the Humble
Mulhouse: Unhappy
Paris (Mus. d'Orsay): Unfortunate
Rochefort: Day Nursery
Saintes: Grabbing an Umbrella; The Compliment
Tourcoing: Convalescents; a watercolour
Trieste: Hungry