George D. S. Henderson


George David Smith Henderson is a British art historian, author, and Emeritus Professor of Medieval Art at the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of The Society of Antiquaries of London and a member of the Association of Art Historians. He was awarded the Reginald Taylor Prize by the British Archaeological Association in 1962 for his paper "The Sources of the Genesis Cycle at St.-Savin-sur-Gartempe".

Early life

Professor Henderson is the son of George David Henderson, a Church of Scotland minister and an ecclesiastical historian with a number of books to his name, and Janet Henderson.

Education and academic career

Educated at the University of Aberdeen, University of London and Cambridge, George Henderson went on to have a long career in academia. He was a Research Fellow at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, 1960-1961, a Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Manchester, 1963-1966, and a Lecturer in Art History at the University of Edinburgh, 1966-1973.
Henderson was appointed to Cambridge University as a Lecturer in the History of Art and Fellow of Downing College in 1974, having previously worked at Downing College for a brief period in the early 1960s.
Henderson was a Visiting Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art and has donated photographs to the Conway Library which are currently being digitised as part of the Courtauld Connects project.
In 1984 he was a founding member of the steering committee of the Harlaxton Medieval Symposium, an annual event held at Harlaxton Manor started by Pamela Tudor-Craig.

Awards and honours

A book to honour his work was published in 2001, New Offerings, Ancient Treasures: Studies in Medieval Art for George Henderson, edited by Paul Binski and William Noel and he is also recognised in The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture as being an influence on the art historian and medievalist Michael Camille.

Personal life

George Henderson is married to Isabel Henderson OBE, Fellow Emerita of Newnham College, Cambridge and an eminent academic in her own right. The Guardian, when reviewing the book she co-authored with her husband, The Art of the Picts: Sculpture and Metalwork in Early Medieval Scotland, described her as ‘the great doyenne of Pictish art’. They have two children: Katherine Henderson (physician) and Matthew Henderson, a British Diplomat and Orientalist.

Selected works

Gothic Art and Civilisation, London: Folio Society, 2004, c1967.Chartres, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968.Early Medieval Art and Civilisation, London: The Folio Society, 2004, c1972.Early Medieval, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977,.Gothic, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978,.Bede and the Visual Arts, Newcastle upon Tyne: J & P. Bealls, 1980.Losses and Lacunae in Early Insular Art. University of York, 1982,.Studies in English Bible Illustration, London: Pindar, 1985, From Durrow to Kells: the Insular Gospel-books, London: Thames and Hudson, 1987,.Vision and Image in Early Christian England, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999,.The Art of the Picts: Sculpture and Metalwork in Early Medieval Scotland,, London: Thames & Hudson, 2004,.