Girl with Fan

Robert Henri was a seminal figure in the history of modern American art. An influential teacher, exhibition organizer, and champion of indigenous modern art, he was the driving force behind the formation of The Eight. This group of artists came together in protest of the National Academy of Design’s conservative biases and exhibited at Macbeth Gallery in New York in 1908. Henri trained at the Pennsylvania Academy under Thomas Hovenden and Thomas Anshutz before seeking further study in Europe where he was inspired by seventeenth-century Dutch and Spanish art. Henri returned to Philadelphia in 1891 and embarked on an influential teaching career which led him to New York. His many students included George Bellows, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, Bessie Marsh, and Man Ray. While Henri inspired openness and experimentation as a teacher, his own work strayed little from his realist training.