Marie (née Mary) Henriques grew up in a home in central Copenhagen. Here, she received her early artistic training from the Danish painter Frants Henningsen (1850–1908). In 1888, she travelled to Paris for six months, financed by her father. In Paris, she received training from the Belgian painter Alfred Stevens (1823–1906), the Norwegian painter Christian Krohg (1852–1925) and the French painter Othon Friesz (1879–1949). When the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen established the Women’s School, M. Henriques’ father urged her to travel back to Copenhagen. Here, she became a pupil of the Danish painter Viggo Johansen (1851–1935) in 1889, and graduated in 1893.

M. Henriques travelled extensively throughout her artistic career. Her travels included Italy, Egypt, Spain, Austria, Morocco, Tunisia and Greece. In Greece, M. Henriques collaborated with German, Austrian and Danish archaeologists to depict and publish the archaic polychrome sculptures that had been excavated from the Acropolis in the 1880s. M. Henriques made several watercolours depicting these new findings. Some of them were published in the book Auswahl archaischer Marmor-Skulpturen im Akropolis-Museum [Selection of archaic marble sculptures in the Acropolis Museum], written by the German archaeologist Hans Schrader and published by the Austrian Archaeological Institute in 1913. Others were exhibited at The World’s Fair in Rome in 1911 and bought by the Danish brewer Carl Jacobsen (1842–1914), who acquired them for the Royal Cast Collection, today a part of the SMK – National Gallery of Denmark. Amongst these works were Hest med rytter (Akropolismuseet inv.nr. 700) [Statue of a Rider (Acropolis Museum inv.no. 700), 1911]and Hoved af “Polos koren” (Akropolismuseet inv.nr. 696) [Head of the “Polos Kore” (Acropolis Museum inv.no. 696), 1911].

Throughout her life, M. Henriques exhibited her works at Charlottenborg in Copenhagen. She debuted with a child portrait in oil at the spring exhibition in 1889, and showed her last piece in 1942. M. Henriques was a member of Akademiraadet [The Academy Council], and acted as chair of the Danish Art Association and the Carl Jacobsen’s Museum Professional Grant. Together with the Danish painter Helvig Kinch (1872–1956), M. Henriques took the initiative to found The Danish Women’s Artist Association, of which she also acted as chair from 1918 to 1920. M. Henriques received the title Officier de l’Académie in 1928. She died in 1944 in Elsinore.

Posthumously, M. Henriques’ oeuvre is mainly represented at museums through her work with polychrome sculpture. She is represented in the collections of SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Randers Kunstmuseum, Skagen museum and Ribe Kunstmuseum. Exhibitions in the the 21^st century presenting her work include In the Light of the Acropolis. Denmark and Greece in the 19th Century at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in 2001, In Dialogue with the Acropolis: Danish Artists in Athens in 2012 at KunstCentret Silkeborg Bad, and in 2024 two exhibitions at SMK – National Gallery of Denmark: Salon des Refusés and Against All Odds – Historical Women and New Algorithms.