Robert Henri
Nationality / Dates: 1865-1929
"In the annals of American Art, Robert Henri (1865-1929) was an immensely significant force behind the change from 19-century academicism to 20-century self-expression.
"Teacher to a generation of American art students, this classroom catalyst encouraged his legions to replace the slick, formula-like style of painting then in vogue with visions of their own. Henri set them free and, in so doing, helped put an end to the deadly task of merely copying still lifes and plaster casts of the nude.
"As a leader of the 'Ashcan School,' he proclaimed that all life was fit subject matter for the artist. At a time when American painting dealt largely with classical motifs and nondescript landscapes, Henri sent his pupils into the streets of the city--New York's Lower East Side with its immigrant population, its peddlers and its poverty--where life in the raw could be studied and recorded.
"With 'Art for Life's Sake' as his battle cry, Henri spearheaded the movement to have artists organize their own exhibits when their outlaw canvases were rejected by the staid Academy. It was he who brought about the exhibition of 'The Eight' in 1908 and the 1910 Independent, both landmark exhibitions. The Armory Show of 1913, the first large-scale display of modern European art ever held in the United States was an effort on the part of one of its chief organizers to upstage Henri and his accomplishments.
"Henri's prowess as a teacher and artist is legend. He influenced several generations of artists; his influence continues today. Among his students were Edward Hopper, George Bellows, Stuart Davis, Rockwell Kent, Patrick Henry Bruce, Man Ray, Guy Pène du Bois, Morgan Russell, Adolph Dehn, Peppino Mangravite, William Gropper, Adolph Gottlieb, Randall Davey, Moses Soyer, Glenn Coleman, Eugene Speicher and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. It was Henri who urged Vachel Lindsay to abandon painting for poetry, and he also taught Clifton Webb, Ariel Durant and Leon Trotsky.
"The story of Robert Henri is the story of the coming of age of American art."1
Henri was born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1865. His father was John Jackson Cozad, his mother, Theresa Gatewood Cozad, and his brother, John A. Cozad. He spent summers in Cozad from 1874-76. In 1879, his family moved to Cozad, the Nebraska townsite which his father had established. In 1881 the family moved to Denver, following his father's shooting of one of his employees, a Mr. Pierson in a gambling duel in 1882. According to Sandoz, the elder Cozad was eventually exonerated of the crime, but not before the family had fled Cozad and changed their name to Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Lee in 1883, and began passing off the two sons as adopted. Henri attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1886-88; went to Paris first in 1881. After numerous trips abroad, he settled in New York and lived at 10 Gramercy Place. He married his first wife, Linda Craig, in 1898, and after her death in 1905, he married Marjorie Organ of New York in1908. He died of cancer in New York's St. Luke's Hospital in 1929. The Gramercy Place home became the repository for his works; Marjorie's niece Janet LeClair now lives there. The holdings of Henri work at the Sheldon Gallery make it the largest public collection in the country.
References:
1. Bennard B. Perlman, Robert Henri: His Life and Art (New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1991), 134-235; p. XV.
Other Works:
Be sure to check out the wide selection of Henri works from the Sheldon Statewide Exhibition "Robert Henri: a Nebraska Legend."
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