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Artist or Maker: Robert Henri (1865-1929)

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Description: Jessica Penn in Black with White Plumes
signed 'Robert Henri' (lower right)--inscribed 'Robert/Henri/168/E (on the reverse) and 'Robert Henri/135 E. 40 NY City' (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
77 x 38 in. (195.6 x 96.5 cm.)
Painted in 1908.

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Provenance: Estate of the artist.
Chapellier Gallery, New York.
Acquired by the present owners from the above, 1966.

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Exhibited: New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Art of the United States: 1670-1966, September 27-November 27, 1966, no. 131.
New York, The New York Cultural Center, Robert Henri, October 14-December 14, 1969, no. 45.
Roslyn Harbor, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, Long Island Collections: The Guilded Age to the 1900s, May 29-September 12, 1993.
Roslyn Harbor, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, The Feminine Image, March 2-May 26, 1997.

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Published: R. Henri, Artist's Record Book, 1908, p. 168.
A. Valente, Robert Henri, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1969, p. 48, pl. 45, illustrated.
C. Schwartz, Long Island Collections: The Guilded Age to the 1990s, exhibition catalogue, Roslyn Harbor, New York, 1993, p. 62, illustrated.

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Notes: The Collection of Helen and David B. Pall

Robert Henri chose his sitters for their vitality and character. The success of his portraits, such as the present painting, Jessica Penn in Black with White Plumes of 1908, derives Henri's ability to interact with his sitter and translate onto canvas a mesmerizing image that transcends a mere rendition of a woman. In this full-length masterpiece, Henri portrays a woman whose carefree hair, casual stance, penetrating stare and ruffled gloves exude a unique character composed of emotional strength and beauty.

Henri began painting life studies of dancers as early as 1896 in Paris, and again later in 1904 when he painted Marianna Bustamente in Spanish Dancer-Sevilliana (Private collection). Henri's favorite model, however, was the Ziegfeld Follies dancer, Jesseca Penn (in the present work, Henri has misspelled Penn's first name). She was tall, had a small waist and, like both his wives, she was a redhead, confirming his fondness for luxurious red hair. Jesseca Penn told Henri that, "she intended to become the greatest dancer in the world," but to Henri she was "one of the finest nudes I have ever seen," (as quoted in B.B. Perlman, Robert Henri: His Life and Art, New York, 1991, p. 57)

Painted life-size and full-length, the dancer in Jessica Penn in Black with White Plumes stands elegantly, holding her full black dress in her white gloved hand. Her beautiful face features full, red lips and deep-set eyes from which a stare emanates toward the viewer. Absent in the painting are the usual props of an interior. She exists in the space without the added adornment of objects, giving the impression that her black dress dissolves into the background isolating her ravishing red hair and pale face. Although blacks and grays dominate the canvas, Henri brightly illuminates Jesseca Penn's face to reveal her forceful character. She looks elegant in her long dress and plumed hat, however she is shown not as an upper-class lady, but a working woman with her hair loose and her gloves bunched. The look on her face is not of a genteel woman but of a woman of strength and determination.

Henri's painting technique profoundly underscored the visual impact of his portraits. Henri writes about his painting style, "It is not the way you put paint on, but what you ask of it that counts. Our style is the way you talk in paint. The hair is wonder in its gamut from materialism to idealism, from detail to bigness...The line on the head between the hair and the face is often a great opportunity for expression in a picture...The eye of a young person is clear cut, of an old person indefinite...Make the forms of a garment so that a trip through its hills and dales will be delightful...Clothes should have not limpness but the beauty of activity. Great things should be happening, currents should be running through. " (The Art Spirit, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1923, pp. 249-57) Utilizing vigorous brushwork and saturated colors, Henri in Jessica Penn in Black with White Plumes is able to distill in a wisp of hair, a gather in her glove and the line of her lips, the essence of the dancer.

In 1888, Henri left New York to study in Paris becoming enamored with the bright colors and short brushstrokes of Claude Monet and the French Impressionists. After visiting the Louvre and Luxembourg museums however, Henri's palette turned dark, enthralled by the art of Edouard Manet. He began to incorporate in his paintings the artist's rich, dark palette, fluid brushstrokes and the use of contrasts of dark and light, in particular Manet's use of black juxtaposed against white and flesh tones. Later, Henri went to London in 1896 to view an exhibition of works by Diego Rodriguez de Sílva Velásquez, eager to view the works of the artist who influenced Manet. Regarding Velásquez, Henri noted, "His pictures seemed to me clear of all the truck of the art of the salons. Simple and direct, about man rather than about the little incidents which happen to man." (as quoted in Robert Henri: His Life and Art, p. 32) The influence of Velásquez's dark palette on Manet and Henri is also reflected in a comment Manet made of a portrait by Velásquez, "The background disappears; it is made up of air which surrounds the gentleman, all dressed in black and lively." (as quoted in Robert Henri: His Life and Art, p. 44)

Throughout his career, Henri continued to travel and study. In 1907, a year before the artist painted Jessica Penn in Black with White Plumes, Henri went to Holland to study the paintings of Frans Hals, particularly the use of his many variations of black and gray. Henri also took from Hals the animated expressions of his subject, capturing fleeting glimpses rather than formal poses. Discussing these artists' influence on Henri's portraits from the early 1900s, William Innes Homer notes, "We can trace the dignified full-length pose to Velásquez; the rapid, summary brushwork to Hals; and the use of strong, direct illumination, with accompanying dark shadows, to Rembrandt." (Robert Henri and His Circle, Ithaca, New York, 1969, p. 237)

Jessica Penn in Black with White Plumes exemplifies the hallmarks that make Henri's portraits some of his most coveted work. He combines the style of European artists and the subject of New York Ash Can artists to successfully portray the character of a beautiful dancer. Henri's heralded portraits such as Jessica Penn in Black with White Plumes now remain as iconic images of humanity.

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