Timothy Hennessy (1925-2015) was an American abstract painter who spent much of his life in Europe, mostly France, Italy and Greece. He typically worked on un-stretched canvases and fabrics, which he would paint with patterns, stitch together, and hang freely in space so that both sides remained visible. Hennessy was associated with many of the illustrious names of his time including Alexandros Iolas, Iris Clert, Betty Parsons, Peggy Guggenheim, and Andy Warhol.

Timothy Hennessy was born in San Francisco in 1925. At the age of 24 he travelled to Paris, where he began working in the studio of artist André Lhôte. While there, he met Greek artist Iannis Kardamatis, an affable dandy who would introduce Hennessy to the Parisian artistic milieu. In Venice, he was introduced to his future wife, the Italian countess Andriana dei Conti Marcello del Mano.

In 1957, he was invited by the artist Ghikas to the Greek Island of Hydra, where he would purchase an abandoned villa together with his friend Kardamatis. Over the next several decades, he would host many visiting artists including Willem de Kooning, while his villa became the nexus of a burgeoning American expatriate art community, which included the likes of Brice and Helen Marden.

In 1971, Hennessy married his second wife, Isabelle Schwob, half sister of Annabel Buffet (wife of artist Bernard Buffet). With her, inspired by Fortuny’s fabrics, he created painted robes for artistic performances. With their son Sebastian, they would spend their time between Venice and Hydra, Paris, and Dublin.

During his career, he would show with the prestigious Tibor de Nagy Gallery and the Betty Parsons Gallery, both in New York. The legendary collector Peggy Guggenheim said about Hennessy that he was “the last major artist” she had discovered.