Keith Henderson (artist)

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For the American football player, see Keith Henderson.
Keith Henderson
Against a sand-coloured sky and foreground, two sections of damaged red brick walls frame a mass of rubble and fallen blue girders

A Wrecked Railway Bridge near the Hindenburg Line near Villers Guislain (1917) (Art IWM Art 246)
Born 1883
Scotland
Died 1982 (aged 98–99)
Alma mater
Occupation Illustrator

Keith Henderson (1883–1982) was a Scottish painter who worked in both oils and watercolours, and who is known for his book illustrations and his poster work for London Transport and the Empire Marketing Board. He had a long professional career that included periods as a war artist in both the First World War, in which he served in the trenches, and in the Second World War.[1]

Early life and First World War

Henderson was born in Scotland and educated at Marlborough College and studied at the Slade School of Art before continuing to develop his art in Paris, where he shared a studio with Maxwell Armfield.[2] During the First World War he served on the Western Front. He depicted his experiences of warfare there in several paintings and in a book, Letters to Helen: Impressions of an Artist on the Western Front, first published in 1917.[3][4]

Between the two world wars Henderson worked as an illustrator, designing posters and book jackets. He illustrated books by W. H. Hudson and Eric Rücker Eddison, including The Worm Ouroboros, and, with Norman Wilkinson, an edition of Geoffrey Chaucer's translation of The Romaunt of the Rose.[5] He produced poster designs for both London Transport and the Empire Marketing Board.

Second World War

In an almost monochromatic composition, a World War Two twin-engined bomber is seen silhouetted against its open hangar door
An Improvised Test of an Under-carriage by Hendersen

At the start of the Second World War, Henderson was one of the first two artists, alongside Paul Nash, appointed as a full-time salaried artist to the Air Ministry by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC. Henderson was sent to RAF bases in Scotland but was frustrated to find that William Rothenstein, although not contracted to WAAC at the time, had already visited many of the same bases and made many of the portrait drawings Henderson was due to paint. This led Henderson to concentrate on ground crew, aircraft hangars, repair shops and runways. Although the painting An Improvised Test of an Under-carriage provoked fury in the Air Ministry and contributed to Henderson's six-month contract not being extended, it was among the artworks shown at the first WAAC Britain at War exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in May 1941.[6] The painting shows a man jumping up and down on the wing of a Lockheed Hudson to test the undercarriage.[7]

Although disappointed his appointment had not been extended, Henderson continued to paint war subjects.[8] Among these paintings was Loading Gantry for Pluto, which shows the giant gantry at W. T. Glover and Co. used for preparing the cables to be laid under the Channel to supply fuel to Allied forces in France.[9]

Later life

After the Second World War Henderson continued to paint, although his style changed somewhat. By the 1970s he was painting groups of figures in minimal settings, often against all-white backgrounds. He was an active member, and major benefactor, of the Royal Watercolour Society until his death in 1982. Works by Henderson are held in numerous Scottish collections, as well as the Imperial War Museum,[10] the RAF Museum[9] and the National Gallery of Canada.[6]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Keith Henderson.
  1. ↑ Aberdeen Art Gallery. "Keith Henderson Watercolours". Aberdeen Art Gallery. Retrieved 24 December 2013. 
  2. ↑ "Keith Henderson". Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators, Volume 1 (OUP). 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2013. 
  3. ↑ Imperial War Museum. "Search the collection, Keith Henderson". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 22 November 2013. 
  4. ↑ "A War of the Imagination:-The Experience of British Artists in Two World Wars". Vortex 3 (University of the West of England). Retrieved 24 December 2013. 
  5. ↑ "Brief Biography Keith Henderson". The Modernist Journal Project. Retrieved 24 December 2013. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Brain Foss (2007). War paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain, 1939–1945. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10890-3. 
  7. ↑ An Improvised Test of an Under-carriage, Keith Hendersen, Imperial War Museum, retrieved 24 December 2013
  8. ↑ "War artists archive – Keith Henderson". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 24 December 2013. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Your Paintings:Keith Henderson". BBC/ Public Catalogue Foundation. Retrieved 24 December 2013. 
  10. ↑ "Collection Search, Keith Henderson". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 24 December 2013. 

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