Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Henning, John
HENNING, JOHN (1771–1851), modeller and sculptor, born at Paisley on 2 May 1771, was the son of Samuel Henning, a carpenter. He received at Paisley the only education he ever had. He followed his father's business, and while engaged in it began to model portraits in wax. In 1799 he went to Glasgow, and then, about 1802, to Edinburgh, where he studied in the Trustees' Academy under John Graham (1754–1817) [q. v.] Through the influence of his employer, James Monteith, he was commissioned to make busts of several prominent citizens of Edinburgh. In 1811 he came to London, and began to draw with enthusiasm from the Elgin marbles, and afterwards from the Phigaleian frieze. After twelve years he completed the modelling of a reduced copy of the Parthenon and Phigaleian friezes, with the missing parts restored. The work attracted attention at the time, but Michaelis (Der Parthenon, p. iv) says the restoration of the Parthenon frieze is quite arbitrary. Henning afterwards executed similar models in relief of the cartoons of Raphael. While in London he received sittings from several ladies, including Mrs. Siddons, and Princess Charlotte of Wales, to whom Henning says he recommended books on the Scottish reformation and the revolution (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 305). Henning was one of the founders, and for many years a member of the Society of British Artists. In 1846 he was presented with the freedom of Paisley, and was entertained at a banquet there. He died in London on 8 April 1851, aged 80, and was buried in the cemetery of St. Pancras at Finchley. Redgrave says his works are ‘plaster miniatures modelled with great skill and minute accuracy.’
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of English School; Irving's Book of Scotsmen; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 305; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon, vi. 103, ‘Henning;’ Gent. Mag. 1851, ii. 213 (from the Builder); Athenæum, 26 April 1851, p. 458.]