American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists

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 country—and to Madrid, for which he reserved special affection—six 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 Gypsies—who he rendered with both immediacy and sensitivity—comprised 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 Henri’s career. Between 1900 and 1926, he executed several important canvases with Gypsies as their subject, including La Trinidad (1906), Spanish Roma Woman (1912)—the first Ashcan School work acquired by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art—and Dolores (1924), pendant to the present lot. Henri approached Gypsies with equal parts fascination and admiration, once characterizing them as “strong—savage—positive 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.” 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 Henri’s 1923 sojourn—and, indeed, the result of a decades-long preoccupation with Roma subjects. The model, Dolores, was among Henri’s 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 painting’s background, broadly brushed and nondescript, accentuates Henri’s sitter. Dolores’ 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. Dolores’ self-assured demeanor, clear eyes, and penetrating gaze attest to her individuality. She is not a picturesque type but a genuine madrileña, 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 “Spanishness”—the country’s 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 masters—artists like Hals and Velazquez and Goya, whose work he would frequent at Madrid’s Museo del Prado—although approached paintings like Spanish Gypsy as an opportunity to perfect his technique. Like the best of Henri’s works from this period—including his Irish portraits, which he executed from 1913 until the end of his career—Spanish 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.