Docent Handbook - Artist Fact Sheet
Artist Name: HENRI, ROBERT (Robery Henry Cozard) Date: 1865-1929
Nationality: American
Title/Date: My Friend Brien, 1913
Size: Framed, 46 x 38 inches Medium: oil on canvas
Gallery Location: Gallery 4
Salient Characteristics of this Work:
- Portrait of Brien O’Malley in a hat, with a pipe in his mouth
o A coachman by profession and storyteller by preference
o Became Henri’s favorite model
o Henri was intrigued by his lean and weathered face
o Enjoyed O’Malley’s cheerful and jocular optimism
- Eyes are the only salient accents, left the details blurred as tone masses
- Painted freely and quickly, without a charcoal sketch drawn on canvas
- Large brushwork technique brings the sitter into the viewer’s space
- Bold brushstrokes, blurred details and strong outlined forms reveal influence of Hals, Velasquez and Manet
- Painted using a deep, rich palette of color that reflects real life
o 1926, he repainted the background and changed the stone wall to dark tones of muted green, red and gray
- Ability to capture happiness with his spontaneous and direct style
- Given to the Mint by Mr. and Mrs. John L. Crist Jr.
Salient Characteristics/Anecdotal Information of the Artist:
- Organized the first non-juried exhibition in America
- Subjects include portraits, figures, and landscapes
- Member of “The Eight”
- Considered to be America’s first modern painter
- Ashcan School style
- Society of American Artists and National Academy of Design member
- Henri’s father, in 1882, shot and killed a man in self defense. To avoid a scandal the family fled to New Jersey and changed their name. Hence, Robery Henry Cozard became Robert E. Henri
Information Narrative:
- Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1865, but was raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey
- 1886, enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy under Thomas Anshutz for 2 years
- 1888, studied in Paris at Academie Julien and Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he encountered his first taste of French Impressionism
o Traveled to Holland, Italy and Spain
- 1892, began his career as a teacher at the Pennsylvania School of Design for women and his friends, Calder, John Sloan, Everett Shinn, and George Luks observed his theories
- 1898, married one of his red haired students, Linda Craige
- 1899, his painting La Neige was accepted to the Paris Salon and later purchased by the French Government for the Musee National du Luxembourg
- 1900, settled in NY
- 1902, teamed up with the New York School of Art
- 1906, elected to the Society of American Artists and the National Academy of Design
o Outraged when the National Academy of Design rejected works by his contemporaries
- 1908, assist with the exhibition at the MacBeth Gallery, which resulted in the formation of “The Eight”
- 1909, started his own school, the Henri School
- 1910, helped organize the Exhibition of Independent Artists, the first non-juried show in America
- 1913, had 5 works in the Armory Show
- 1913, visited Ireland for the first time and found the subject for My Friend Brien
- 1916, trip to Santa Fe and he produced a series of Indian portraits
- 1921, produced his final landscapes
- 1929, included the Arts Council of New York’s list of the 100 most important living American artists
*All information compiled from the Mint Museum’s Artist Files