Robert Henri (1865-1929)

Born the son of a riverboat gambler, Robert Henri entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1886; two years later he sailed for Paris and began studies at the Académie Julian. Although he passed the rigorous entrance examinations for the Ecole des Beaux Arts in the spring of 1891, Henri chafed under the strict academic program and left after one semester. He returned to Philadelphia in September of 1891. The following year he met John Sloan, William Glackens and George Luks, all artist-illustrators for Philadelphia newspapers. Henri became a leader of this energetic circle of artists who, influenced by his ideas, began paintings gritty scenes of urban life. Henri advocated an art that was relevant to life. “Art when really understood is the province of every human being.” he wrote in The Art Spirit (1923). 

References: Henri’s scrapbooks and papers are microfilmed in the collection of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Instititution. See also Robert Henri, The Art Spirit: Notes, Articles, Fragments of Letters and Talks to Students. . . comp. by Margery Ryerson (Phila., 1923). William Homer, Robert Henri and His Circle (Ithaca, NY: 1969); Bennard B. Perlman, Robert Henri, Painter (Wilmington, DE: Delaware Art Museum, 1984). 

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