Robert Henri

(1865-1929)

Mata Moana 32 x 26 in. (81.3 x 66 cm.)

Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, San Jose, California.
Sale, Butterfield & Butterfield, Los Angeles, March 12, 1987, lot 3169.
Sale, Christie's, New York, December 4, 1992, lot 156.
Acquired by the present owner at the above sale.

Exhibited
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 115th Annual Exhibition, February 8-March 28, 1920, p. 39, no. 201.

Literature
P.H. Falk, A.A. Bien, eds., The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: Volume III, 1914-1968, Madison, Connecticut, 1989, p. 234, no. 201.

We are grateful to Valerie Ann Leeds, PhD, for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Robert Henri became one of the foremost proponents within American painting to focus on the unsympathetic realities of modern urban life, rather than the softness of Impressionist and Art Nouveau subjects. As the oldest of the unofficial group of painters, Henri was considered the leader of what would become the "Ashcan School," along with George Luks (1867-1933), John Sloan (1871-1951), and Everett Shinn (1876-1953). These four initially met while studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under the tutelage of Thomas Anshutz (1851-1912). Anshutz was a dedicated advocate of painting in the realist tradition and, utilizing the dark tonal palette of his mentor Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and Spanish painter Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), he instructed his students to do the same. The group was influenced, at least in part, by the photography and journalism of Jacob Riis (1849-1914), which frequently depicted the squalid conditions of tenement housing and the difficulties faced by the poorest members of society. Portraying the often harsh and tumultuous daily lives of turn-of-the-century Americans earned Henri and his cohorts the moniker of the "Ashcan School," a dual-meaning reference to the gritty urban scenes they painted and a tongue in cheek reference to the groups derision towards so called "schools of art."

While most of the Ashcan School Painters devoted themselves to portraying the difficulties of urban life in the dance halls, bars, tenement buildings, and docks of New York City, Henri focused on depicting the humanity he found in his travels throughout the US and Europe through portraiture. Through his travels, Henri was exposed to a plethora of diversity and used these experiences to shape how he portrayed his models. Henri viewed his sitters as intrinsically unique individuals, and sought to portray them as such, rather than tropes of their racial or cultural identities. In his own words, "The people I like to paint are "my people," whoever they may be, wherever they may exist, the people whom dignity of life is manifest, that is who are in some way expressing themselves naturally along the lines Nature intended for them. My people may be old or young, rich or poor, I may speak their language or I may communicate to them only gestures. But whenever I find them . . . my interest is awakened and my impulse immediately is to tell about them through my own language – drawing and painting in color." (as quoted in W. I. Homer, Robert Henri and His Circle, New York, 1969, p. 252)

Henri's nude paintings often featured ordinary men and women as his models, eschewing the idealized and classical representations of the nude form seen in European art. His works celebrated the human body in its raw and unadorned state, emphasizing the inherent dignity and uniqueness of each individual. Henri's commitment to depicting the diversity of the human form was both a reflection of his artistic philosophy and a commentary on the societal norms and expectations of his time. In Mata Moana, Henri has captured the sensuality and steadfast resolution of the sitter. Here Henri employs loose brushwork and a warm color palette to create a sense of intimacy, though the averted gaze of the sitter rejects emotional connection to the viewer, instead focusing on self-preservation. The soft fabrics surrounding her shoulders and waist cocoon the sitter and draw the eye around the figure, allowing one to take in the form in its entirety. In Mata Moana, we see a woman strong in poise and unwavering in determination.

In 1919, the year prior to painting Mata Moana, four of Henri's nude paintings were banned from an exhibition in Columbus, Ohio because there was violent criticism from a handful of patrons. Upon being alerted of the censorship, Henri responded "some day the whole world will learn to respect the human body, will cease to see in it a cause for shame, and then the world will be cleaner in mind and spirit" (as quoted in a letter to Mrs. Grace R. Arnold, December 2nd , 1919). Through his nude paintings, Henri not only challenged the traditional perceptions of beauty but also contributed to the broader artistic movement that sought to redefine American art by embracing the everyday experiences and realities of ordinary people.