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Henry Robertson Craig

1916 - 1984

Henry Robertson Craig was an Irish based painter who was born in 1916 in Dumfries Scotland, but who moved to Ireland in 1946 at the age of 30, after serving with the Royal Army Service Corp during World War 2, where he worked on maps and camouflage related projects.

He studied art at Dundee college of Art where he met fellow student and lifelong partner Patrick Hennessy. They renewed his friendship after the war and rented a house in Crosshaven, Co. Cork for a period. They then moved to Cobh, a few miles away and remained there until they departed for Dublin in 1950.

In later life from 1966 onwards, he was represented by the Ritchie Hendriks gallery in Dublin and his paintings from visits to Italy, Germany, Paris, Cote d'Azur, and Dordogne were seen at his one man exhibitions in Dublin, as well as at the Guildhall Galleries in Chicago.

In 1968 Robertson Craig left Dublin for Tangier with Hennessy, and travelled extensively throughout north Africa. David Hendricks, the art dealer, was a close friend of both, and organised a joint exhibition at Cork Arts Society Gallery in 1974, which featured the painting Rocky Shore[1].

In later life at the age of 64, Robertson Craig went to live in the Algarve, Portugal with Hennessy. He died 4 years later in 1984.

In twenty-five years of exhibiting at the Royal Hibernian Gallery (RHA), Henry (‘Harry’) Robertson Craig had shown some fifty works. He died on 5th December 1984 at Portimao, Portugal and was cremated at [Green Crematorium, London]. A studio sale of his and Patrick Hennessy's work was held at Christie's London, in 1986.

Henry Robertson Craig's work has since been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices reaching up to €9,000 for his painting of St Mark's Basilica and Square in 2006.