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 Renior. 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.

The Comedie-Francaise, also known as the Théatre-Français, where Henriot died

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