Jacques Tenenhaus was born in 1947 in Paris. After passing through the Cours Charpentier in Montparnasse, he is in 1965, the pupil of the painter Goetz. At the same time painter and watercolourist, J. Tenenhaus is dedicated to sculpture. In many of his works, the sensual forms and exaggerated features announce the style of later works.

Jacques Tenenhaus was born in 1947 in Paris. He belongs to the generation of artists born just after World War II, who contributed to the renewal of ideas in 1968. After attending the Charpentier course in Montparnasse, he became a student of the painter Goetz in 1965. In 1971, he obtained a degree in philosophy. In 1974, he created a painting and ceramics workshop for children and adults. At the same time, as a painter and watercolorist, Jacques Tenenhaus dedicated himself to sculpture. His first stone work, an adolescent's self-portrait, dates back to 1969. In several of his works, sensual shapes and exaggerated features foreshadow the style of his later creations. The 1980s were significant for the evolution of his style. He began working with clay, exploring themes around the couple and seeking to depict the boundaries of a fusion-based romantic relationship. From the body, only associations remain: face-hand, face-torso, and face-arm-hand. The "Gastropods" series illustrates this idea. From the "Gastropods" onward, Jacques Tenenhaus always sought to express his hidden emotions through sculpture. The idea for the work, as well as its title, only emerged after its creation. 1986 marked the period of the "Peelings," a series of explorations aimed at achieving the essential. After completely halting his artistic work from 1989 to 1998, during which he built a point-of-sale advertising company—Forms and Sculptures, mainly catering to perfumers—Jacques Tenenhaus returned to sculpture. He produced numerous bronze works. After his explorations of the fusion of the couple, he shifted his focus to depicting the beginning of a relationship as it develops. Often, the artist's works reflect stages of his own life, allowing us to share in his emotions. In this regard, works such as Générique (2003) represent a romantic encounter with Caroline Guérin and opened up a new working strategy. This involved building a wall structure starting with an initial clay coil laid directly on the ground, which gradually gave rise to a figure. The slit present in almost all his pieces, while symbolically associated with the feminine, opens the door to future developments exploring the hidden meaning of life. Sculpture remains for Tenenhaus both a form of mediation and meditation.