Elsie Marian Henderson, later Baroness de Coudenhove, (28 May 1880 – 1967) was a British painter and sculptor notable for her animal paintings.

Biography

Henderson was born in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

and with the encouragement of her mother, a keen amateur painter, she attended the

South Kensington Schools The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

before studying at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

between 1903 and 1905. Henderson continued her art education in Paris. For periods of time, between 1908 and 1912, she took lessons at various ateliers in the city including the Academie Moderne, the

Académie Colarossi The Académie Colarossi (1870–1930) was an art school in Paris founded in 1870 by the Italian model and sculptor Filippo Colarossi. It was originally located on the Île de la Cité, and it moved in 1879 to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the ...

, the

Académie de La Palette ''Académie de La Palette'', also called ''Académie La Palette'' and ''La Palette'', (English: ''Palette Academy''), was a private art school in Paris, France, active between 1888 and 1925, aimed at promoting'' 'conciliation entre la liberté et l ...

and at Cercle Russe. In 1912 Henderson studied with Othon Friesz before spending 1913 in Italy. After some time on the island of

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

, Henderson enrolled at the Chelsea Polytechnic in 1916, where she was taught

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

by the artist

Francis Ernest Jackson Francis Ernest Jackson (15 August 1872 – 11 March 1945) was a British painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Poster#Propaganda and political posters, poster designer and lithographer. Background Francis Ernest Jackson was born on 15 August 1872 in ...

. In London she became a frequent visitor to

London Zoo London Zoo, also known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for science, scientific study. In 1831 o ...

and animal drawings and paintings became a major theme of her work. London Transport commissioned a poster from her to promote travel to the Zoo, which was, despite its unusual design, well received. Henderson started her own press and became a member of the

Senefelder Club The Senefelder Club is an organization formed in London in 1909 to promote the craft of art reproduction by the process of lithography. The club was named in honor of Aloys Senefelder, who in 1796 invented the lithographic process. The process ...

. In 1924 Henderson had her first solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London. The exhibition consisted of drawings, lithographs and bronze sculptures of, often savage, animals such as ''Jaguar Tearing its Prey'' and ''Leopard Killing a Parrot''. Between 1927 and 1938 several works by Henderson featured in exhibitions hosted by the Society of Graver Printers in Colour. In 1928 Henderson married Henri Baron de Coudenhove, the French consul to Guernsey. The couple lived on the island during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and throughout the

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

. Baron de Coudenhove died towards the end of the war and in 1946 Henderson moved to Hadlow Down in Sussex. She continued painting into the last years of her life. During her lifetime Henderson exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

, with the Women's International Art Club and the Society of Women Artists. A joint retrospective exhibition of Henderson's work, with that of her friend

Orovida Pissarro Orovida Pissarro (8 October 1893 – 8 August 1968), known for most of her life as Orovida, was a British painter and etcher. For most of her career she distanced herself from the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles of her father, Luc ...

, was held in 1985 at the Michael Parkin Gallery. Sally Hunter Fine Art subsequently held exhibitions of her work in 1999, 2001 and 2004 at various locations. The

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

holds two examples of her work, both from 1916, while the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

holds several pieces. The

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London, the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

in Cambridge and

Manchester City Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...

also hold works by Henderson.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Elsie 1880 births 1967 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Académie Colarossi alumni Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art English women painters English women sculptors People from Eastbourne