Henry Allan studied art in Belfast and Dublin before enrolling at the age of eighteen in the Academie Royaume in Antwerp, where Vincent van Gogh had briefly been a student. In the late nineteenth century an artist's education was not considered complete if they had not spent time studying in Paris or Belgium. Most artists chose Paris, but many Irish artists favoured Antwerp, at least before moving on to Paris. Belgium was considered a safer country for young students, and the style of paintings
taught at the Academie Royaume was less radical than the Impressionism then coming into vogue in Paris.
In Antwerp, Allan shared lodging with fellow Irish students Richard Nounan and Edwin Hill. He won a number of prizes for drawing and paintings, and returned to Ireland in 1990, showing that year for the first time at Royal Hibernian Academy - a work entitled ''Country Road Near Antwerp''. After living in Downpatrick for a year or so Allan moved to Dublin, where he won the Royal Dublin Society's Taylor Prize.
In addition to painting mainly Victorian genre subjects such as beggars, rag-pickers, flower and match-sellers, Allan painted landscapes around counties Down and Dublin.
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