George Henry

GEORGE HENRY Ayrshire 1858 - 1943 London One of the principle members of the group of artists known as ‘The Glasgow Boys’, little is known about George Henry’s early life. He attended the Glasgow School of Art in 1882 where he formed strong links with Sir James Guthrie, Joseph Crawhall and Arthur Melville, all of who were to have a strong influence on the early development of his artistic style. By 1885, Henry had forged a close friendship with Edward Atkinson Hornel with whom he was to paint two works, The Druids and The Star of the East, which were both well received by critics. Henry frequently travelled to London throughout his life and received many portrait commissions which formed an important part of his oeuvre. Whistler had been an important catalyst between the Glasgow Boys and Japan, and Japanese artifacts could be readily found in Glasgow during this period. The publication, The Bailie, commented on 22nd February 1893 – ‘Messrs Henry and Hornel have mastered a technique not dissimilar in character from that favoured in the land of the cherry-blossom - let us call it Hokusai modified by Monticelli…’ In 1893, Hornel and Henry travelled to Japan where they stayed for eighteen months, unfortunately many of the works Henry produced on this trip were damaged or destroyed and the whole experience was a great disappointment, as a result he refused to give any lectures on his return and this marked a turning point in his career. George Henry’s earlier works, such as A Galloway Landscape (1889) and Barr, Aryshire (1891), are considered to be amongst some of the most modern works produced by any Scottish artist at the end of the nineteenth century, however, as his paintings evolved he developed a much greater decorative emphasis and the influence of Whistler and his ‘nocturnes’ remained a distinctive characteristic of his work throughout his career.