Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
American, 1865-1929
Born Robert Henry Cozad, Robert shared a lineage with Mary Cassatt, making them cousins. Henri kept secret that relationship much as he did his birth name, in an effort to erase the reputation of a murder conviction against his father John Cozad. Robert's childhood reads like a Bret Harte short story. From card shark to real estate speculator, Henri's father moved the family from Cincinnati to Nebraska in a series of speculative land development projects. A disgruntled employee attacked Robert's father, and in self-defense his gun fired, killing the attacker. The murder conviction, later pardoned, led to the family's fleeing to Colorado, and assuming new identities. Robert Henri was sent to boarding school in New York, where he showed talent in writing and theater, creative endeavors encouraged by his mother. He discounted his creativity, thinking "artists surprised their parents... by doing masterpieces in their infancy... and [he] was not of that class" (Perlman). Nevertheless, painting buildings his father acquired in Atlantic City and producing political cartoons and color sketches for a small "museum" in his father's store caught the attention of admirers who encouraged Robert's art. James Albert Cathcart persuaded Henri to study at his alma mater, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where Henri enrolled in 1886.
Robert Henri’s strong connection to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts began when he enrolled as a student in 1886. He entered the Academy eight months after Thomas Eakins had resigned. Despite Eakins’s absence, his strong influence on the curriculum at PAFA remained and it affected Henri profoundly. Eakins had instituted new educational policies at the Academy that were some of the most progressive in the country.
Thomas Anshutz played an important role in Henri’s development as an artist. He upheld many of Eakins’s ideas and continued to build upon his teaching method; however, Anshutz was also open to change and cultivated individual artistic expression. A devoted teacher, he did not impose artistic formulas. Henri valued Anshutz’s criticism greatly, and determined to succeed as an artist, he worked tirelessly as his student.
After studying for three years in Paris from 1888 to 1891, Henri returned to Philadelphia and the halls of the Academy. Steeped in Anshutz’s call for realism and plain painting without bravura, Henri challenged himself and the other artists he influenced to “paint what you feel . . . paint what is real to you.” And so began his lifelong pursuit of painting “life in the raw,” without what he deemed “academic artifice.” He promoted this credo to his many students and perhaps popularized it most in his sensational 1908 exhibition at Macbeth Gallery, where he and a group of artists, eventually called The Eight, mounted a show that was a direct affront to the National Academy of Design’s rejection of their work and the modernist spirit that shaped them as artists. Henri met four of the artists who made up The Eight, William Glackens, John Sloan, Everett Shinn, and George Luks, in Philadelphia, where they all took classes at PAFA.to
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
467
319
256
229
1
1
Artist: Robert Henri
Girl with Muff
By Robert Henri
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Girl with Muff" is aa American figurative portrait oil on canvas painting by Robert Henri in 1912. The artwork is 57 1/4 x 38 1/4 inches and, with the frame, is 64 1/4 x 45 1/4 x 2 ...
Category
Early 20th Century American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$950,000
Related Items
"Naughty Children" on Canvas by Harold Stephenson, Aka Abruzzi
By Harold Stephenson
Located in Pasadena, CA
This painting features two children with big brown eyes peeking behind red-slatted shutters. The innocence on their faces contrasts with some sense of embarrassment, like if they had...
Category
1960s American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
$600 Sale Price
50% Off
H 32 in W 1.75 in D 38.25 in
Puddle Jumper. Woman With Umbrella Original Oil American Rainy Scene Painting.
Located in Marco Island, FL
An ordinary scene of a woman walking down a sidewalk in the rain is elevated to a little gem of a painting. American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Puddle Jumper (...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$3,500
H 15.5 in W 13.5 in
The Letter-American Scene Painting. Ladies Gossiping. Best Friends.
Located in Marco Island, FL
Clyde Singer captures the moment when two friends open a letter with shocking news. A master of capturing the small and significant moments of everyday life, Singer realistically po...
Category
1950s American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
$10,500
H 17 in W 15 in D 3 in
Girl with Braided Hair, Raphael Soyer
By Raphael Soyer
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Raphael Soyer (1899-1987)
Title: Girl with Braided Hair
Year: Circa 1987
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 12 x 9 inches; framed size, 19 x 16 inches
Condition: Excellent
Inscripti...
Category
1980s American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$8,400 Sale Price
20% Off
H 12 in W 9 in
A Surprise Dinner Guest. Outdoorsman and Bear in Snowy Forest Camp Painting.
Located in Marco Island, FL
A dynamic narrative painting titled A Surprise Dinner Guest (or An Unexpected Guest), showing the moment an outdoorsman sees the bear approaching his snowy campsite. Presented in a...
Category
Early 20th Century American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Calder Sculpture in Lincoln Center- New York City American Scene Painting
Located in Marco Island, FL
Clyde Singer was a master at capturing the moments, small and significant in everyday American life. This painting, "Calder Sculpture in Lincoln Center", is a glimpse of an ordinar...
Category
1970s American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
$14,000
H 34 in W 35 in D 2 in
Hopeful of the Dream City
By Joshua Salami
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
"Hopeful of the Dream City" invites viewers to delve into the depths of the young lady's aspirations. Her gaze is fixed on a distant horizon, eyes filled with a mixture of excitement...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Ink
Blue , American Realist painter, Representational Figurative art, Portrait
Located in Houston, TX
Blue is painted in the style of American Realism. The painting is Representational Figurative art which is a time consuming process especially with portraits and figurative art.
T...
Category
2010s American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
$5,200 Sale Price
20% Off
H 30 in W 20 in D 1.5 in
The grape picker
Located in Zofingen, AG
Classical portrait of a woman harvesting grapes. In this oil painting, I captured the serene essence of nature and the simple elegance of human connection with the earth.
The centr...
Category
2010s American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Linen, Oil
Halloween
Located in Burlingame, CA
Halloween - an iconic American painting by James Torlakson who is known for his photorealist oil paintings, watercolors and aquatint intaglio etchings.
Torlakson’s photorealism subj...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Village Vendor, 1970. Original American Street Scene Oil Painting. Food Vendor.
Located in Marco Island, FL
Business is slow! The Village Vendor, painted by Clyde Singer, captures the boredom and expectation waiting for the next sale. This likely New York City scene shows the bustle of ...
Category
1970s American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$6,000
H 14 in W 13 in D 1 in
Wide-Open Throttle Illustration for Saturday Evening Post. Grisaille Painting.
By Grattan Condon
Located in Marco Island, FL
Illustration by Grattan Condon for the February 8, 1930 Saturday Evening Post story entitled "Wide-Open Throttle" by A.W. Somerville, which appeared on page 56. The tension between ...
Category
1920s American Realist Robert Henri Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
$6,500
H 33.5 in W 23.5 in
Robert Henri figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Robert Henri figurative paintings available for sale on 1stDibs.


