Robert Henri (25 June 1865 – 12 July 1929)

Street Scene with Snow

1902

I'm back! Where was I? Nowhere; if you didn't hear, Blogger controls shut down for a couple of days, so I was unable to push any posts through. Luckily everything is working well again, so I can get back to posting.

In terms of figurative painting, no one has had a stronger influence on the American art scene than Henri. And Henri is the foundation of American Realism. Hopper and du Bois were both influenced strongly by the his presence; and comparing the styles of the three painters, you can note many traits borrowed from Henri by the two younger artists. There is an occasional question that is asked, which is "If not towards abstraction, where?" And Henri and his disciples answered, though for quite a while few were interested in receiving that answer. As a final note, I always wonder about the heritability of artistic genius, so whenever I find out that artists are related I think it fascinating; in that vein, Henri was a distant cousin of Cassatt.