Henry Blackburn

Henry Blackburn was a British author and art critic who lived from 1830 to 1897. He is especially associated with the Royal Academy through Academy Notes, which he edited for many years, as well as related exhibition guides such as Grosvenor Notes and Academy Sketches.

His books show how wide his interests were. Alongside writing about art and illustration, he published travel-centered works including Artists and Arabs, Normandy Picturesque, Breton Folk, and Artistic Travel in Normandy, Brittany, the Pyrenees, Spain and Algeria. He also wrote The Art of Illustration and a memoir of illustrator Randolph Caldecott.

That mix of criticism, visual culture, and travel gives his writing its appeal today. Even when he was describing exhibitions or places in detail, he wrote for general readers, aiming to make art more vivid and approachable.