Harry Linley Richardson is best known for his vivid realist portraits of notable New Zealanders posed against their local environments. Born Harry Linley Richardson on 19 October 1878 at Peckham Rye, Surrey, England, he was the son of George Richardson, an artist, and his wife, Mary Linley. Harry attended Alleyn's College of God's Gift at Dulwich, before pursuing a thorough art training in London. Initially he studied black-and-white illustration at Henry Blackburn's School for Drawing for the Press, then went to Goldsmith's School of Art. From 1896 to 1899 he attended the Westminster School of Art where he excelled in drawing, winning a Queen's prize for excellence in life drawing in 1899. His training culminated in study in Paris at the informal Académie Julian during 1900.

On returning to London, Richardson worked professionally as a painter, a book and magazine illustrator and a teacher. He exhibited widely in England and in 1905 was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. In 1907 he was appointed art instructor at the Wellington Technical College in New Zealand.

Richardson was elected to the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts' council in 1909, and became a vice president in 1911. In 1915 he became art master at the technical college, with responsibility for art classes at Wellington College and Wellington Girls' College. In England he had studied museum collections extensively and he pursued this interest in New Zealand.

Harry Richardson died in Palmerston North on 22 January 1947