We propose in this article to question, in the light of the Henryenne conception of art as it is exhibited in Voir l’invisible, the relationship that this particular modality of expression maintains with the « life », which is always life of the artist. This will involve questioning the ancient notion of “Mimèsis”, and proposing the true (and paradoxical) meaning that must be accorded to “imitation” in art : the characteristic of imitation is not to make people forget that it is an imitation. But we will thus propose to determine what is the status of the artist’s “birth” : the artist is the one who is truly “born”, as in himself in his singularity, from the fact of communing with the life of that very thing which he represents.