Biografie von Robert HENRI (1865-1929)

Birth place: Cincinnati, OH

Death place: Cincinnati

Addresses: Phila., 1891-99/Paris, France; NYC, c.1901

Profession: Painter

Studied: pupil of Eakins & Hovenden at PAFA, 1886-88; Acad. Julian, Paris, with Bouguereau, Robert-Fleury, 1888-91; …cole des Beaux-Arts; Spain; Italy.

Exhibited: NAD, 1878; PAFA, 1892-1929 (gold, 1914, 1929); SNBA, 1896, 1897, 1899; Pan-Am. Expo., Buffalo, 1901 (med.); St. Louis Expo., 1904 (med.); AIC, 1905 (prize); Boston AC, 1907, 1908; Corcoran Gal., 1907-28; AC Phila. 1909 (gold); Buenos Aires Expo., 1910 (med.); Armory Show, 1913; Pan.-Pac. Expo., San Fran., 1915 (med.); S. Indp. A., 1919-29; Wilmington SFA, 1920 (prize); "The Ashcan Artists and their New York," NMAA, 1995

Member: SAA, 1903; ANA, 1904; NA, 1906; NIAL; Portrait Painters; NAC; Am. P&S; Taos SA; Los Angeles Modern Art Soc.; Soc. Indep. Artists; Boston AC; New Soc. Artists; Woodstock AA

Work: Luxembourg Gal., Paris; AIC; CI; Gal. Spartanburg, SC; Dallas AA; Columbus Gal. FA; New Orleans AA; Brooklyn Inst. Mus.; PAFA; Carolina AA; Kansas City AI; San Fran. Inst. Art; MMA; NAC; Minneapolis Inst. Art; Buffalo FAA; Oberlin College Gal.; Santa Fe Mus. Art & Arch.; Memphis Mus.; Cincinnati Mus.; Detroit Inst.; TMA; Milwaukee AI; Telfair Acad.; CGA; CAM, St. Louis; LACMA; Wilmington SFA; Butler AI; Newark Mus.; Decatur AI; Canajoharie Art Gal.; Rochester Mus.; Montclair AM; San Diego Mus.; Des Moines AA.

Comments: The outspoken leader of The Eight," later called the "Ashcan Group" who were largely responsible for creating the famous Armory Show of 1913. He was a highly influential teacher at ASL; Valtin School; Ferrar School; New York School of Art (prev. known as the Chase School); and his own Henri School, all in NYC. His collection of lectures, published as The Art Spirit (1923) greatly influenced the course of American art because he encouraged many students towards independence and personal expression, urging them, in particular, to pay close attention to their feelings and reactions to subject matter and to translate these directly into their paintings. As a teacher he also stressed self-reliance and self-respect. In his paintings Henri employed a slashing, quick attack to record feeling and sensation. His portraits were of young women, children, and foreigners. He painted Indian portraits in San Diego in 1913 and spent the summer of 1916 in Santa Fe, painting, followed there by friends and students.

Sources: WW27; William Innes Homer, Robert Henri & His Circle (1969); Mecklenburg, Zurier, and Snyder, Metropolitan Lives: the Ashcan Artists and their New York; Bennard B. Perlman, The Immortal Eight: American Painting from Eakins to the Armory Show, 1870-1913 (New York, 1962); Baigell, Dictionary; Peggy and Harold Samuels, 219-220; Eldredge, et al., Art in New Mexico, 1900-1945, 198; Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 355; Woodstock AA; Falk, Exhibition Record Series; Curtis, Curtis, and Lieberman, 183."