Angela Gregory

Robert Henri (1865-1929)
Fergus, Boy in Blue, 1928
Oil on canvas

About the Artist:

Robert Henry Cozad was born in 1865 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is considered to be a leader among American artists and was known for his abilities as a teacher and his belief that the artist should adhere to his or her own instincts. He specialized in ethnic portraits and paintings of children. He spent his youth between Cincinnati and Cozad, Nebraska, a town founded by his father, John Jackson Cozad. His father, a gambler and real estate developer, was accused of being involved in a shooting. This forced the family to flee to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where they changed their names. Robert chose for his new name a variation of his middle name that would rhyme with the word buckeye and remind him of his Ohio roots. His father was cleared of all charges, but the family maintained their adopted names. Robert Henri studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and at the Academy Julian in Paris. Upon returning to the United States in the fall of 1891 the artist began teaching art in Philadelphia. He encouraged his students to paint what was real to them. He embraced all classes of people in his painting. He traveled regularly and used the people he met as subjects in his work. Robert Henri died in New York from cancer in 1929.

About the Art:

In search of people that had not been spoiled by civilization, Henri traveled to Ireland’s Achill Island. He purchased a house there in 1924 and returned there every summer after, while maintaining a residence in New York. Fergus, Boy in Blue, 1928 depicts a young Irish boy and is one of many portraits of children that Henri did in the last years of his life. Wide, clear and colorful eyes help to evoke a feeling of innocence on the part of the young boy. This painting is representative of the many portraits of young children that Henri did in order to
support himself.