Portrait of a Friend

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