Robert Henri, born in Cincinnati, the leader of American painters known as the “Ashcan School,” was as both painter and teacher one of the most important figures in early 20th century American art. He was instrumental in the planning of the epoch-making exhibition of The Eight in 1908, and also helped organize the Exhibition of Independent Artists in 1910, both events which changed the direction of American art. As Bennard B. Perlman wrote in his introduction to Robert Henri, His Life and Art (Dover, New York, 1991), Henri was “an immensely significant force behind the change from nineteenth-century academicism to twentieth-century self-expression…As the leader of the ‘Ashcan School,’ he proclaimed that all life was fit subject matter for the artist. At a time when American painting largely dealt 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…the Story of Robert Henri is the story of the coming of age of American art  

The influence of Henri and both an artist and teacher was strong through several generations of American artists, including Edward Hopper, George Bellows, Stuart Davis, Man Ray, William Gropper, Moses Soyer and Yasuo Kuniyoshi, to name but a few. His pupil and friend Rockwell Kent wrote of him: “Henri as an instructor, Henri as a leader of revolt against Academic Sterility, as an inspirational influence on American Art, is possibly the most important figure of our cultural history.”  

 

 

Robert Henri  1865-1929
Café Scene
Charcoal drawing on wove paper
Embossed with artist's monogram, lower left
Provenance: Estate of ther Artst; Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
Sheet size: 8 1/2 X 10 1/4 inches
Frame size: 15 3/4 X 18 inches
Inscribed in pencil lower right: "Discussion with the socialist Benson Astor"
FC10004 Price on Request

 
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