Outsider Art: Henry Darger A Hidden Artistry Evolved Into Music / / Henry Darger was born in 1892 in Chicago, Illinois. He led a very isolated life and had no close relatives to speak of. After being orphaned and institutionalised as a child, being subject to the horrific traumas that came with that, he became reclusive, withdrawn and retreated from the world. As Darger grew into adulthood, he found work as a hospital janitor and dishwasher. Darger’s remarkable visual works, much like his stories, depict a fantasy universe Away from his work, he would spend most of his time alone in the apartment he rented for forty-three years from photographer and designer Nathan Lerner and his wife, Kiyoko. Across the decades, Darger created his own fantasy world, a vast interior realm he kept hidden until the day he died.