Robert Henri
Robert Henri began his career at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied a curriculum designed by Thomas Eakins and Thomas Anshutz. From these artists he inherited a willingness to engage directly with the unique qualities and imperfections of his subjects. After a trip to Paris, Henri began to incorporate the visual effects of Impressionism into his images, which resulted in a highly original style of painting that represented the modern world with truth and vitality.
How does the artist differentiate water, ice, smoke, steam, and sky?
Henri’s studies of New York sometimes feel quiet and distant. An influential teacher, he distilled some of his ideas about landscape in his important book, The Art Spirit (1923): “the various details in a landscape painting mean nothing to us if they do not express some mood of nature as felt by the artist. It isn’t sufficient that the spacing and arrangement of the composition be correct in formula. The true artist, in viewing the landscape, renders it upon his canvas as a living thing.”
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd