Robert Henri (1865 - 1929) from the Peter A. Juley and Son Collection

Robert Henri   The charismatic Henri, who had trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, believed art should embody the spirit of its own time. He urged his students to go into the streets to capture the spontaneity and character of the people they encountered. In his own work---whether of elegant New Yorkers or the Irish children and Spanish gypsies he painted on annual trips abroad---he said he tried to portray "this thing that I call dignity in a human being."