Born in Newlands, Glasgow, Robert Henderson Blyth RSA studied under David Forrester Wilson RSA at Glasgow School of Art (1934-9), and under James Cowie RSA at Patrick Allan-Fraser RSA's school of art at Hospitalfield, Arbroath in 1938. Henderson Blyth joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1941 and served with them until the end of the Second World War. During the war, Henderson Blyth continued to paint and sketch, whilst on service in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
In 1946 Henderson Blyth began teaching at Edinbrugh College of Art but moved to Aberdeen in 1954 to take up a post at Gray's School of Art where he went on to become Head of Drawing in 1960. He held this position until his death in 1970.
Henderson Blyth exhibited widely, including at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Society of Scottish Arts. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1949 and became an Academician in 1958.