Son of the distinguished mathematician Élie Cartan, Henri Cartan began his academic career as professor of mathematics at the Lycée Caen (1928–29). He was appointed deputy professor at the University of Lille in 1929 and two years later became professor of mathematics at the University of Strasbourg. In 1940 he joined the faculty of the University of Paris, where he remained until 1965; from 1970 to 1975 he taught at Orsay.
Cartan ran an influential seminar for many years, and contributed to the theory of sheaves, which he showed was a powerful tool in the theory of analytic functions of several variables, homological algebra, algebraic topology, and potential theory. His major works include Homological Algebra (1956) (written with Samuel Eilenberg), and Elementary Theory of Analytic Functions of One or Several Complex Variables (1963). The recipient of numerous honours, Cartan was awarded the 1980 Wolf Foundation Prize in Mathematics, and in 1989 he was made commander of the Legion of Honour.