Elsie Marian Henderson, later Baroness de Coudenhove,  was a British painter and sculptor notable for her animal paintings.
Henderson was born in Eastbourne in Sussex and with the encouragement of her mother, a keen amateur painter, she attended the South Kensington Schools before studying at the Slade School of Fine Art 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 de La Palette and at Cercle Russe. In 1912 Henderson studied with Othon Friesz before spending 1913 in Italy. After some time on the island of Guernsey, Henderson enrolled at the Chelsea Polytechnic in 1916, where she was taught lithography by the artist Francis Ernest Jackson. In London she became a frequent visitor to London Zoo and animal drawings and paintings became a major theme of her work. In 1924 Henderson had her first solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London.

In 1928 Henderson married Henri Baron de Coudenhove, the French consul to Guernsey. The couple lived on the island during World War II and throughout the German occupation. Baron de Coudenhove died towards the end of the war and in 1946 Henderson moved to Sunnyside Cottage, Wilderness Lane, Hadlow Down in Sussex with her sister Mildred She continued painting into the last years of her life. Continue reading “Henderson, Elsie Marian (28 May 1880 – 1st July 1967)”