Henri was an influential teacher of such students as artist Edward Hopper and a founding member of The Ash Can School of painting.
Born in June of 1865, Robert Henry Cozad would later take his middle name and give it a French twist to become Robert Henri. Although his family had been prosperous and founded the town of Cozad, Nebraska, Henri’s father got into a fight with another man and fatally shot him. Murder charges were eventually dropped, but a fresh start still seemed to be a good idea.
The Philadelphia Years
Henri first studied at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under the famed painter Thomas Eakins, who insisted that his students draw live nudes rather than plaster models. This stance greatly impressed Henri, who would credit Eakins’ love of realism as having a major influence on his work.
Henri then enrolled in Paris’ Académie Julian in 1888 and was less than thrilled by the conservative milieu. Henri again upheld the teachings of Eakins, who had asserted that American artists should focus on American subjects and break free of European styles – past and present.
Upon returning to Philadelphia, Henri befriended a group of artists who worked as newspaper illustrators. These particular artists, namely John Sloan, William Glackens, George Luks and Everett Shinn, were used to quickly depicting a scene to meet a story deadline, and many of the scenes they portrayed were the dismal, sensational or catastrophic events of an urban environment.
Henri was fascinated by his friends’ rapid sketching skills, and he encouraged them to take their work to the next level, using oils and canvas. Henri’s studio soon became a free-spirited gathering place for these artists, and was nothing like the more stuffy art societies or clubs nearby.
Following Henri’s marriage and a honeymoon return to Paris, Henri and his wife moved to New York. Henri felt that Philadelphia was too narrow-minded and that New York had greater energy and would be more receptive of his ideas. He also had taken a job with the New York School of Art.
New York and The Eight
Henri’s friends followed him to New York, forming what was now known as “The Eight.” The Eight – Henri, Sloan, Glackens, Luks, Shinn, Arthur Davies, Maurice Prendergast and Ernest Lawson – generally turned toward America’s bleaker side for inspiration, presenting to the world paintings of alleys and tenements, saloons, and characters that most wealthy art patrons might tend to avoid. The name Ash Can School was used to describe these painters, noting contemptuously how they found glory in garbage cans or bins to dump coal soot into.
Henri and his comrades felt they were part of a fresh wave of American expression that followed the visions of poet Walt Whitman and novelist Herman Melville. Initial reception was less than enthused, however, with outright disgust over The Eight’s work. They were finally able to hold an exhibit in 1908, attracting both positive and negative attention and even causing some rioting and protest.
Teaching and Legacy
Henri’s theories formed the method of the classes he taught, urging his students to seek out what was vital to them. By 1909 Henri was able to start his own art school in New York, where he would teach the American realist painters Edward Hopper and George Wesley Bellows.
Henri died in 1929. His career not only reflects the infusion of a new spirit into the American art of his own time, but is also a celebration of rebelling against the tried and tired. In his own words, Henri stressed what can still be applied today:
Paint what you feel. Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you.
Sources
- Robert Henri – Answers.com
- Robert Henri and His Influence: Traditional Fine Art On-Line
- Robert Henri Museum
- Museum of Nebraska Art: Robert Henri
