La Madrileñita

Robert HenriWW-1910-014258

1910·Oil on canvas·58.4 × 48.3 cm (23 × 19 in.)

Robert Henri dedicated his career to painting portraits of those he called “my people,” namely, sitters who evoked a personal response in the artist. He found many appealing subjects while traveling in Spain, including matadors and picadors, gypsies, dressmakers, and performers. Henri admired the subject of La Madrileñita, a 15-year-old dancer named Josefa Cruz, for her talent and traditional training, as he later recalled: “Although very young she was already a very remarkable dancer at the time the painting was done, and it seemed to me that she had in her carriage . . . much of the spirit and dignity of old Spain.” Henri painted six portraits of Cruz; in this version, completed over the course of two days, she turns her head to look over her shoulder, directly engaging the viewer in a poised and assured manner. Her enigmatic smile bears a sense of mystery that is heightened by the darkness beyond.

Catalogue

Year: 1910
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 58.4 × 48.3 cm (23 × 19 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Robert Henri

Artist

Robert Henri

Painting

Robert Henri was an American painter and influential teacher who championed direct observation and expressive brushwork as the foundation of modern art. Working primarily in oil portraiture and urban scenes, he rejected academic convention in favor of immediacy and psychological intensity. Henri led the Ashcan School movement, a group of early 20th-century realists devoted to depicting everyday American life without sentimentality. His teaching at the Chase School of Art and the Art Students League shaped generations of American painters through his insistence on authentic subject matter and vigorous technique.

Cincinnati, OH, USA

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