Henry Strachey

Who is Henry Strachey?

Henry Strachey was an English painter, art critic and writer.

Known as Harry, he was the son of Sir Edward Strachey and was a cousin of Lytton Strachey. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and exhibited widely between 1888 and 1923 at many galleries and shows, including the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, the Grosvenor Gallery, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the London Salon, the New English Art Club, the New Gallery and the Royal Academy.

He was an accomplished portrait painter and amongst his subjects, in 1914, was the 7 year old Brenda Capron who is better known under her married name as the artist Brenda Pye.

He executed a series of panels for the County Council's dining room at Brockwell Park in South London, "representing typical scenes of country life : Dawn, with mowers going to work in the field; Noon, two pinafored children by a spray of dog-roses in a field ; Evening, the hay in the stack ; Afternoon, labourers at tea by the side of a stream ; and a large panel of twenty feet or so, the length of the room, showing labourers at work in a wide hayfield."

He was the art critic of The Spectator magazine. He wrote a book on "Raphael" published by G. Bell & Sons, Ltd. London in 1911, which was one of The Great Masters in Painting and Sculpture series edited by G. C. Williamson.