Henry Howard RA (1769–1847) was born in London and studied painting under Philip Reinagle in 1786. He attended the Royal Academy Schools from 1788, receiving silver and gold medals whilst a student there. In 1791 Howard travelled to France, Switzerland and Italy, where in Rome, he met and studied sculpture with John Flaxman and John Deare.

From the 1790s he painted and drew a variety of subjects from literature, portraits, and drawings of sculpture, including illustrations to Milton's Paradise Lost and Alexander Pope's translation of Homer. Howard was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy, followed by a full member in 1808, and he exhibited there until his death in 1847. In 1811 he became secretary of the Academy and in 1833 he was appointed professor of painting at the Schools.

Henry Howard also worked on many grand decorative schemes, including the ceiling of the dining room at the Sir John Soane's Museum, a Solar System for the ceiling of Stafford House, and transparencies for a 'Grand Revolving Temple of Concord' built in Green Park.

Howard's work can be found in a number of public collections, including the Royal Academy, Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, and British Museum.