Henry James Richter RA (1772–1857), artist and philosopher, was born in Middlesex, possibly at 40 Great Newport Street, Soho, on 8 March 1772 and baptised at St Anne's Church, Soho, on 5 April at that same year.

Henry James was the second son (of five children) of John Augustus Richter and Mary Haig. John was originally from Dresden, Germany and was an artist, engraver, and scagliolist, well known for his works in imitation of marble. John Augustus Richter was a partner with Domenico Bartoli another scagliolist in London beginning in 1767 and continuing through the 1777 or 1778. Bartoli emigrated from the port city of Livorn, Italy (often referred to in English as Leghorn) and, after working for almost 10 years with Richter, moved on to Ireland. Henry's older brother, John Richter (1769?–1830), was a prominent radical politician, and member of the London Corresponding Society. He was later arrested for high treason and incarcerated briefly in the Tower of London. In 1794, the Richter brothers compiled and printed John Milton's book of poems called Paradise Lost which included 13 illustrations done by Henry James. The book was dedicated and presented to His Royal Highness George, Prince of Wales while John Richter was on trial for treason. Another brother, Thomas Richter, was a director of the Phoenix Life Insurance Company and remained with them until nearly the mid century. He had a sister, Elizabeth Richter, who married Rev. James Stuart Freeman around July 1808. Richter was educated at Dr Barrow's school (Academy in Soho Square) and St Martin's Library School, London.

Richter got his early education at the Academy in Soho Square. Initially the school was located at 1 Soho Square then around 1726, schoolmaster M. Clare moved it to number 8 where it became known as the Soho Academy. After Claire's death in 1751, his partner, Rev. Cuthbert Barwis took over for a period of time; succeeded upon his death by his nephew John. By the time Richter had entered the school, Reverend Dr. William Barrow had already become schoolmaster and ran the school from 1785 through 1799. During that time it was called occasionally referred to as Dr. Barrows school. Reportedly the school taught mathematics, geography, French, drawing, dancing and fencing. It is believed that Richter attended there between the age of 13 and 18.

In about 1787, he began instruction under the artist Thomas Stothard, with whom he remained a close friend. He also began an association with William Blake. In 1788 he produced his first illustrations (to Shakespeare's plays), and first exhibited paintings, showing two landscapes at the Royal Academy, where he exhibited for many years. He became a student of the Royal Academy Schools in 1790, and reportedly studied anatomy.

Throughout the 1790s Richter worked mainly as an illustrator, demonstrating skills as both draftsman and engraver; projects included editions of Samuel Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison and Clarissa Harlowe (with others, both 1793), Samuel Johnson's Lives of the English Poets (with others, 1797), and J.-H. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul and Virginia (1799). For a period of time, Richter lived at #26 Newman St. in London. This Street was also known as "Artists Street" because in the two block section were approximately 40 painters, sculptors, engravers and other in the arts including such notable individuals as Robert Cromek at #64, Benjamin West at #14, Thomas Stothard at #28, James Ward at #6, Henry Thomson at #15, Ozias Humphry at #25, George Arnald at #36, James Heath at #42, Thomas Cheesman at #71 and John Phillip "Pope" Davis at #76.

In 1809 Richter began to exhibit at the Associated Artists in Water Colours, Bond Street, becoming a member in 1810, and president in 1811–12. His most popular work at this stage was the genre subject A Brute of a Husband, though he also established himself as a literary painter, with depictions of such characters as Don Quixote and Falstaff, and became one of the few notable artists to paint historical subjects in watercolour. With the dissolution of the Associated Artists in Water Colours in 1812 he was elected a member of the Society of Painters in Oil and Water Colours, though he resigned his membership in December of the same year, and until 1820 was represented on its walls only as an exhibitor. (In that year the society returned to its original form as the Society of Painters in Water Colours.)

Richter was a pioneer in painting from nature, in both practice and theory. In 1812 he painted the oil Christ Giving Sight to the Blind, in bright sunlight on the roof of his house in Newman Street.

The work was purchased by the trustees of the British Institution for 500 guineas and later presented to the New Church, Greenwich, completed in 1825, where it was installed as an altarpiece. A second version, attempting to improve on its truth to nature, was exhibited four years later. An engraving of this was done in 1816 by John Young. Then, in 1817, he published the pamphlet Daylight: a recent discovery in the art of painting, with hints on the philosophy of the fine arts, and on that of the human mind, as first dissected by Immanuel Kant. His more general ideas, including his approach to colour and use of models of his compositions in clay or wax, influenced other painters, notably the miniature painter James Holmes. Daylight combined his artistic interests with his study of metaphysical philosophy. Richter also wrote the article Metaphysics in the Encyclopaedia Londonensis and a paper, German Transcendentalism (1855).