Ellen Hunt Henderson
Date of birth: 23 January 1869
Place of birth: New Orleans
Date of death: 4 September 1935
Place of death: New Orleans
Category: collector
Identity:
Ellen Hunt Henderson's father William came from Scotland, and had founded the Henderson Sugar Refinery in 1876; Hunt assumed control after his father’s death in 1900. In the 1880 US Federal Census, William (aged 52) was living with his wife Mary (aged 44) in New Orleans, and their children, Ellen H. (11), Sally (9) and Hunt (7), Elizabeth (6) and William (3). The children were all born in New Orleans.
Life:
Her brother Hunt Henderson built up a huge collection of Impressionist and modernist art plus a lot of paintings by Whistler. When Hunt died in 1939, a group of works by Whistler were bequeathed to Tulane University, and later, in 1941, sold through the Macdonald Gallery, New York to Grenville L. Winthrop, who bequeathed them to Harvard University.
However, most of Henderson's collection remained with his wife Jeanne and their son Charles. After Jeanne Henderson’s death in 1970, the collection was partially dispersed.
It is not clear exactly when and what paintings Ellen owned, but she appears to have owned Petite Bonne à la porte d'une auberge y367 at some time. In 1922 she bought Violet and Blue: The Little Bathers, Perros-Guirec y382, probably on behald of her brother, and it was certainly among works bequeathed to Tulane.
Bibliography:
'Ellen Hunt Henderson', Ancestry.com
