Henry Sandham

Henry Sandham (1842-1910) OSA, RCA, SCA, was a painter, photographer, and illustrator whose reputation was established by his paintings and watercolours on Canadian subjects. He was part of the landscape movement that characterized Canadian art at the time of Confederation.

By 14 in 1856, Sandham was employed in William Notman’s Montreal photographic studio and by 18 was assistant to Notman’s partner John Arthur Fraser in the studio’s art department. As there was no art school in Montreal at the time, Sandham learned his crafts at Notman’s and from local painters Otto Reinhold Jacobi, Adolphe Vogt, Charles Jones Way and Fraser. Sandham became head of Notman’s art department in 1868 and won the silver medal at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1878 for his composite photograph of the Montreal Snow Shoe Club (1877).

He began working on assignment for “The Century Magazine” and “Scribner’s Monthly” magazine creating illustrations for the publications, including an illustration for George Grant’s “The Dominion of Canada” article for “Scribner’s Monthly” (1880). He was a founding member of the Society of Canadian Artists and in 1880 became a charter member of the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1880, Sandham and his wife moved to Boston where he was the vice president of the Boston Arts Club. They left Boston for London in 1901 where his works were shown at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1905 to 1908. He passed away in 1910 in London, UK.