HÉNON (Jean-Jacques). Born in Lyon, 1802-1872. Botanist and - Lot 84

HÉNON (Jean-Jacques). Born in Lyon, 1802-1872. Botanist and politician. Deputy for Rhône. Mayor of Lyon. L.A.S. "Hénon" addressed to Jules Simon, Minister of Public Instruction. Lyon, August 29, 1871. 4 pp. in-8 on Lyon City Hall letterhead, handwritten annotation "Personnelle" at head. Important and virulent political letter concerning the appointment of a director for Lyon's École des Beaux-Arts. In this letter, written a few months after the fall of the Second Empire, Hénon protests with rare vigor against the appointment of a certain "M. Blanc", a former close associate of Guichard, whom he deems totally unsuitable for the functions envisaged. The tone, extremely free and personal, reveals the administrative and political tensions that were shaking Lyon's cultural institutions at the time. Hénon denounces "a professor recognized as incompetent", accused of having caused the School to decline to the point where it had not won "a single Prix de Rome" for several years. He categorically refuses to allow this man to be imposed as director: "We don't want him as a teacher, and you impose him on us as director. I think you'll agree that this looks very much like a provocation. The letter then turns particularly harsh on the moral and financial aspects. Hénon mentions court cases, creditors having seized the candidate's salary, and believes that such an example should not be set for students. He also points out the worrying state of municipal finances and recalls that the position had been abolished as a "completely useless sinecure". The final passage is of singular historical interest: Hénon announces the unofficial dispatch of a police report on acts attributed to "Brother Rivarin" against pupils, revealing the conflicts between municipal power, school administration and religious congregations in France at the start of the Third Republic. A very fine collection of great interest for Lyon's political and cultural history, combining municipal administration, artistic education and power struggles in the early days of the Republic. The manuscript is lively, energetic and expressively readable.