Henry Lawrence Faulkner

(American, 1924-1981)

Henry Faulkner was born in Holland, Kentucky in 1924. With his mother’s death in 1926, he and his ten brothers and sisters were placed in a children’s home in Louisville, Kentucky where he would be forced to return several times in his early life. By 1930, Henry had been placed in several foster homes, but eventually settled in Falling Timber, in Clay County.

Henry was always interested in art, making his early paints from poke berries and other natural materials. At age 15, during one of his returns to the children’s home, he enrolled as a scholarship student in the Louisville School of Art where he began to study art seriously. In 1942, Henry left Louisville, and though he continued his drawing and writing (he was a penetrating and prolific writer), he began what was to be a long period of traveling where he would meet among others, Ezra Pound, as an inpatient at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Henry first moved to Lexington in 1956 to continue his painting, drawing and writing in a more urban environment. At this time he also began his family-an odd collection of cats and a goat (which would accompany him everywhere during his travels). During the late fifties he exhibited at galleries in New York, Ohio and Florida where his work was well received. In 1959 he met Tennessee Williams and a life-long friendship began, and he would travel back and forth from Kentucky to Florida until his death. He was exhibiting regularly in New York, Ohio and Florida and his reputation was becoming quite solid. In 1961, he went to Taormina, Sicily, in Italy, and it was there he perfected his painting style. In the mid-sixties, Henry made Lexington his permanent summer home and the Florida Keys his winter home.

Faulkner continued his painting, writing and traveling throughout the seventies. He was an avid collector of furniture, antiques and clothing on which he spent all of the earnings from his paintings. His personal style, wit and imagination left lasting impressions on all who met him. Henry died in 1981 as a result of an automobile accident just ¼ mile from his home.

Banquet in Siena, Italy Oil on Board 14 x 18	Birds of Magi Oil on Board 7 x 5	Blue Eyed Cat Peeking Between Lace Curtains Oil on Board 16 x 13	Late Fall Lexington Oil on Paper 10 x 13
Hilltop Village, Church Steeples Oil on Board 12 x 15	House with Fountain Oil on Board 15 x 21	Perugia, Italy Oil on Board 13.5" x 19.5"	Godiva, The unicorn Goddess Oil on Board 22-1/2 x 18
Addoration of the Butterfly Oil on Board 24 x 20 Sold	Alice, My Darling Oil on Board 28 x 12 Sold	Poem to God Oil on Board 26 x 20	Stairway to Heaven Oil on Board 23-1/2 x 15