Robert Henri (American, 1865-1929) - Spanish Gypsy (Dolores)
Robert Henri Sale History
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Item Details
Description
Signed 'ROBERT HENRI' bottom left; also signed and titled verso, oil on canvas
32 x 26 in. (81.3 x 66cm)
Executed in Madrid on April 4, 1924.
Provenance
The Artist.
The Estate of the Artist, to Mrs. Robert Henri.
The Estate of Mrs. Robert Henri.Â
Owings-Dewey Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Acquired directly from the above.
Collection of Charles and Virginia Bowden, San Antonio, Texas.
The Estate of Charles and Virginia Bowden, San Antonio, Texas.
Exhibition
Concord Art Association, Concord, Massachusetts, May 1926.
Casson, July 1926 [Boston, Massachusetts?].
Federation of Arts Circuit, Brooklyn and Rochester, New York, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, 1931.
"The Robert Henri Memorial Exhibition," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, March 9-April 19, 1931, no. 72.
Literature
John F. Sloan, Catalogue of a Memorial Exhibition of the Work of Robert Henri, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1931, no. 72, p. 12 (listed, not illustrated).
Lot Essay
We wish to thank Ms. Valerie Ann Leeds for her kind assistance in researching, and cataloguing the present Lot.
Following in the footsteps of compatriots, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, and his teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Thomas Anshutz, Robert Henri traveled to Spain for the first time in 1900. Over the next quarter-century, he would return to the countryâand to Madrid, for which he reserved special affectionâsix more times, his final visit dating to 1926. From his studio in the Spanish capital, Henri trained his eye on a broad cross-section of society. Street people, bullfighters, dancers and Gypsiesâwho he rendered with both immediacy and sensitivityâcomprised an extensive body of work that remains among his most compelling.
Roma culture emerged as a powerful and persistent theme throughout the latter half of Henriâs career. Between 1900 and 1926, he executed several important canvases with Gypsies as their subject, including La Trinidad (1906), Spanish Roma Woman (1912)âthe first Ashcan School work acquired by New Yorkâs Metropolitan Museum of Artâand Dolores (1924), pendant to the present lot. Henri approached Gypsies with equal parts fascination and admiration, once characterizing them as âstrongâsavageâpositive in their costume and in all their customs, the most child-like people I have ever seen and as proud as if each one was a king or queen...These people show the light of life in their eyes and all the alert of their expression more than any people I know.â Spanish Gypsy, jewel in the crown of the Collection of Charles and Virginia Bowden, is evidence of the regal disposition Henri perceived in his Roma sitters.
Spanish Gypsy was the result of Henriâs 1923 sojournâand, indeed, the result of a decades-long preoccupation with Roma subjects. The model, Dolores, was among Henriâs favorites during the visit; she is known to have sat for him on at least two other occasions. Here, she is presented bust-length and seated, her hands folded neatly in front of her. Form is delineated by long streaks of red, white, cobalt and mustard yellow; the paintingâs background, broadly brushed and nondescript, accentuates Henriâs sitter. Doloresâ heart-shaped face is framed by raven locks; the red in her cheeks is echoed in her earrings, pursed lips and the ribbon that secures her hair. While accomplished formally, the portrait is also underscored by a great deal of humanity. Doloresâ self-assured demeanor, clear eyes, and penetrating gaze attest to her individuality. She is not a picturesque type but a genuine madrileĂąa, who may have inspired a contemporary critic to remark: "I always feel when in the presence of a gypsy [sic], however uncouth [she] may be, that I am in the presence of an aristocrat."
In works like Spanish Gypsy, Henri celebrated what he perceived as bona fide âSpanishnessââthe countryâs spirit and vitality embodied. He imbued his sitters with energy and personality, animating them by way of color and composition. Although in the final decade of his life, Henri was at the height of his powers in the mid-1920s. He had settled into a mature style that capitalized on the Dutch and Spanish mastersâartists like Hals and Velazquez and Goya, whose work he would frequent at Madridâs Museo del Pradoâalthough approached paintings like Spanish Gypsy as an opportunity to perfect his technique. Like the best of Henriâs works from this periodâincluding his Irish portraits, which he executed from 1913 until the end of his careerâSpanish Gypsy is distinguished by its strength and immediacy. Eschewing studio props and stereotype in favor of dignity and authenticity, Henri offers viewers a glimpse of the true Spain.
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