Henri-Lucien Cheffer
Henri-Lucien Cheffer (1880–1957) was a French painter, engraver and illustrator. Born in Paris, he studied at the School of Decorative Arts and in the studio of Léon Bonnat. He became best known for designing postage stamps.
Cheffer produced 384 stamp designs in total, including 52 for France. His first stamp design appeared in 1911 for Iran. He also designed banknotes for French Algeria, Tunisia, the Netherlands, and the Dutch East Indies.
He earned several awards: he won the Grand Prix de Rome engraving second prize in 1904 and again in 1906, and at the Salon des Artistes Français he received an honorable mention in 1902, a medal in 1919, and a medal of honour in 1927.
Cheffer was a member of the Société des Artistes Français and, during the First World War, created many watercolors depicting scenes of battle and destruction.
In 1940 he was invited by the French government to design a joint Anglo-French stamp. In 1955 he designed stamps featuring Monaco’s Prince Rainier III. A later set known as the Marianne de Cheffer circulated from 1967 to 1971.
Cheffer’s works are held in several major collections, including the US National Library of Medicine, the Library of Congress, the Wellcome Collection, the Imperial War Museums, the Louvre, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
Henri-Lucien Cheffer died on 3 May 1957 at the age of 76.
This page was last edited on 27 January 2026, at 21:17 (CET).