(Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts)
This unkempt but earnest little worker, diligently bending over his copy-book, is a portrait of the artist's own nephew. This picture for a long time adorned the wall of his studio in the Place Pigalle.
Shortly afterwards, he won a medal from the École des Beaux-Arts, which gave him the right of free admission to the studio of the artist Picot.
Henner was at this time twenty-seven years of age. He felt that he was now ready to enter the lists for the Prix de Rome. Boldly he set himself to his task. The subject assigned was as follows: Adam and Eve Discovering the Body of Abel. Henner's conception of the subject was admirable. Abel stretched at length under the shadow of dense foliage, and beside him, on her knees and heart-broken with grief, Eve suffers the terrible blow of divine malediction, while Adam, standing petrified with horror, seems not yet to have realized the immensity of his loss.
In this painting, the manner which is destined to become distinctive of this artist declares itself: a luminous profundity of landscape that emphasizes the whiteness of Abel's flesh. Although satisfied with his work, Henner was doubtful of the result. He trembled, for he had staked his entire future upon this picture. But he found unexpected encouragement from the little model who had posed for him and his competitors, in the character of Abel.
"Have no doubt about it," the child told him, "you will win the prize. None of the others can compare with yours."
And Henner, only too glad to believe, went to work with redoubled zeal, to justify the admiration of his little model. His composition, however, when finished, proved to be incomplete: he had forgotten to include the club which Cain had used to strike down Abel. At the last moment he added this accessory so dexterously that the arrangement of the picture as a whole was undisturbed.
There was no discussion regarding the bestowal of the prize. Henner was unanimously declared the winner.
It is easy to imagine Henner's joy. Nevertheless a shadow dimmed it: that of not having been able to give his mother the final consolation of his triumph. That worthy and courageous woman died but shortly before, blessing and encouraging him almost with her final breath.