Ann Henderson

Ann Henderson (11 October 1921– 13 March 1976) was a Scottish sculptor born in Thurso, Caithness, Scotland. Henderson taught sculpture at the Edinburgh College of Art for almost twenty years and was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1973. Biography Ann Henderson was born into a farming family at Ormlie, near Thurso. While a pupil at the Miller Academy, her art teacher recognised and encouraged her creative flair and was influential in persuading Ann’s parents to allow her to study sculpture. In 1940 Henderson became a student at the Sculpture School of the Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 1945 (the only woman in her year). For achieving high results in her Diploma of Sculpture she was awarded a Post-graduate scholarship. This enabled her to embark on further studies in the Sculpture School and as a result, she was awarded a major travel scholarship that took her to Paris. There she studied under the French sculptor Marcel Gimond at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1941 her family had moved to a farm at Culrain in Easter Ross and it was to this property that Henderson returned as a student during her college holidays. Before embarking on her scholarship travels, Henderson worked for a year as a Junior Assistant Teacher in the Sculpture School, returning to this position after her travel year. She was later promoted to Lecturer and subsequently to Senior Lecturer. Henderson introduced new experimental teaching courses to the Sculpture School. Henderson’s sculptures would often begin life in her studio as clay maquettes. She embraced new materials and was one of the first sculptors in Scotland to use polyester resin and fiberglass in any significant way. Her sculptures ranged from the figurative to the abstract as the influences of realism gave way to that of cubism and abstraction. Picasso’s cubist approach and joy in combining materials are reflected in her large plaster and bark sculpture ‘Hen Wife’ constructed in the forest.