Robert Henri

(American, 1865–1929)

Robert Henri was an American painter known for his use of lively brushstrokes and simplified forms. Henri’s preoccupation with Édouard Manet and his depictions of urban life were influential to the young Ashcan School painters John Sloan and George Bellows. “Art is the giving by each man of his evidence to the world. Those who wish to give, love to give, discover the pleasure of giving,” he once explained. Born Robert Henry Cozad on June 25, 1865 in Cincinnati, OH, the artist changed his name around 1882 in order to dissociate himself from his father who had recently killed a man. Henri went on to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia before continuing his education at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Returning to Philadelphia in 1891, Henri befriended the younger painters Sloan and Bellows, who were working as newspaper illustrators at the time. As the artist began teaching a younger generation of painters, first in Philadelphia then at the Art Students League in New York, he became increasingly interested in pedagogical techniques, and later published the seminal book The Art Spirit in 1923. During his time teaching, he had a number of students that went on to become successful in their own right, including Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Henri spent much of the latter part of his career travelling and painting in New Mexico and Ireland. The artist died on July 12, 1929 in New York, NY. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others.