Cincinnati, Ohio, 1865 – 1929, New York, New York

Born in Cincinnati in 1865, Robert Henri was the leader of the group of 20th century realists
known as the Eight. Through his teaching, painting and writing, he served as a vital source of
inspiration for generations of artists.  Henri’s background is complex–he was born Robert Henry
Cozad, but because of the gambling and gun fighting of his father, Henri felt it necessary to
assume a new identity.  Perhaps his adventurous background led to Henri’s curiosity about all
classes of people.  Certainly, he would have been encouraged to examine all kinds of subjects at
the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied the realist tradition of Thomas Eakins
through Eakins’ students, Thomas Anshutz and Thomas Hovenden.  

Throughout his long career, Henri’s portraits of American, European and Asian  children, and his
depictions of friends, family  and models stand out as his best work.  Through the years Henri
experimented with Impressionism, only to abandon the style for a darker, bravura brush akin to
the great works of Velazquez, Hals and Manet.  After 1913 his palette brightened with a wide
range of colors based on Hardesty Maratta’s color theory.

But it is Henri’s importance as a teacher that overshadows his role as painter.  He joined the
faculty of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women in 1892 and taught at the New York
School of Art from 1902 until 1909, when he left to start his own school.  During these years
young painters such as John Sloan, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, George Bellows and
Edward Hopper met and were influenced by the great teacher.  Henri taught at the Art Students’
League until the year before his death.  His quotation from The Art Spirit, published in 1923,
reflects Henri’s teachings: “There are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual.
Such are the moments of our greatest happiness.  Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom.”

(American, 1865 – 1929)