Identity:

Joseph Henderson was a Glasgow landscape, portrait, genre and coastal painter. He was the father of the landscape painter Joseph Morris Henderson, and probably also the painter John Henderson.

Life:

Henderson studied at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh. He was a regular exhibitor, showing at the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Arthur Tooth and Sons Gallery and the Society of British Artists, the latter society which elected JW its President in 1886, as well as at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Manchester City Art Gallery. In 1878 he was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours, becoming a full member in 1906.

Henderson was among those Glasgow painters who in 1891 appended their names to a list requesting that the Corporation of Glasgow buy Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle (YMSM 137) (#12326). In 1892 JW was approached by Mary Newton Mann about contributing a sketch to an album of watercolours and black and white drawings in order to raise 400 guineas for Queen Margaret College in Glasgow. Henderson was among those who had already promised his assistance (#03987).

Bibliography:

Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; Johnson, J., and Anna Greutzner, Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Woodbridge, 1980; McEwan, Peter J. M., Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture, Woodbridge, 1994.