Printmaker, illustrator, and designer Herni Riviere was born in Paris, France on March 11, 1864. His father was a Pyrenees embroidery merchant who, during the advancement of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, relocated his family to his home region of Ax-les-Thermes to keep them out of the fray. It was there that Riviere was immersed in the rural landscapes that would influence his art later in life. The family soon returned to Paris, and Riviere was sent to a boarding school. After the sudden death of his father in 1873, his mother was forced to move into a small apartment and remove her son from boarding school in favor of free public school. This proved to be a significant pointin Riviere's life, however, as he befriended other artistic-minded students, including Paul Signac, who would study art with him as they got older. 

Though is mother had intended for him to become a merchant, his constant desire to draw and his search new techniques finally led him to private lessons with painter Emile Bin, Riviere's first formal training. By 1880 he was working as an illustrator for various publications and was living in Montmartre. He became a part of the editorial and illustration teams for Chat Noir journal, which emerged from the famed cabaret of the same name. Around this time he developed an interest in printmaking, beginning with etching. In 1888, he was introduced to Japanese color blockprints, which he began collecting before teaching himself how to carve and print his own blocks, making his own tools and mixing his own pigments in the process.

In the late 1880s he also began experiementing with chromolithography, using the method that was more closely associated with commerical art to make large-scale fine art reproductions of his watercolors and woodcuts, printing upwards of twelve colors per image. Like the Japanese printmakers he admired, he often created series of images that depicted a view from different angles or different times of day. For example, in the manner of Hokusai's "36 Views of Mount Fuji," Riviere created "36 Views of the Eiffel Tower" - earning him the title of Paris' "Little Hokusai." Riviere continued to work in various forms of printmaking until 1917, when he retired from the professional art world and returned to watercolor painting. 

In addition to his work in painting, printmaking, and illustration, Riviere was also greatly inspired by "shadow plays" produced throughout Asia. In 1882 he bgan creating his own shadow plays at Le Chat Noir using zinc cut-outs to create the silhouettes of figures and landmarks. Later, the use of silhouettes would often show up in his prints. His deep interest in Japanese art and his regard for the artists themselves was paramount to his own output, and he is now regarded by some as a bridge between two art worlds that had stormed the global stage: that of "the Orient" and of the Belle Epoque. 

Henri Riviere continued to paint until around the mid 1940s, when an occular hemorrhage rendered him nearly blind. He died in Paris on August 24, 1951.

In 2009 the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, which holds Riviere's studio contents and the bulk of his work, opened a major retrospective of his work, "Henri Riviere: Entre Impressionnisme et Japonisme," that encompassed the many mediums he worked in, including watercolor, prints, photography, shadow plays, and more. His work is included in collections throughout the globe, including the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and many others.