Identity:

John Henderson was an artist, archaeologist and art collector.

Life:

John Henderson was unmarried. He was the son of John Henderson and Georgiana Jane, the daughter of George Keate, F.R.S. His brother was Charles Cooper Henderson.

John Henderson attended Balliol College, Oxford. He studied law before dedicating himself to archaeological pursuits. He was a discerning art collector and an excellent artist, like his father, who had been a gifted amateur and an early patron of Thomas Girtin and John Mallord William Turner.

Henderson was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He left Greek and Roman vases and Egyptian antiquities to the university of Oxford and works by George Cattermole, Peter De Wint and Canaletto [Giovanni Antonio Canal] to the trustees of the National Gallery on his death. Henderson also bequeathed a valuable collection of water-colours by Canaletto, Turner, Thomas Girtin, John Robert Cozens, David Cox, and William James Müller, a collection of Russian silver and enamels, his Damascus, Persian, Rhodian, and majolica porcelain and pottery, his oriental and Venetian metal-work, his oriental arms, his Roman, Greek, and Venetian glass and the correspondence of George Keate with Voltaire and Dr. Edward Young to the trustees of the British Museum.

Henderson was, along with JW, a member of the Burlington Fine Arts Club, from which JW resigned in 1867.

Bibliography:

Kelly's London Post office Directory, London; Lugt, Frits, Les marques de collections de dessins et d'estampes: marques estampillèes et écrites de collections particulières et publiques; marques de marchands, de monteurs et d'imprimeurs; etc..., Amsterdam, 1921, no. 1256;Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004.