Irish Lass

Details

ROBERT HENRI (1865-1929)
Irish Lass
signed 'Robert Henri' (lower center)—signed again and inscribed with title and artist's record number (on the reverse)—inscribed with title and record number again (on the overlap and on a label affixed to the overlap)
oil on canvas
24 x 20 in. (60.9 x 50.8 cm.)
Painted in 1913.

Provenance

Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York.
Acquired by the present owner, circa 1995.

Literature

A. Anderson, "Art and Artists," Los Angeles Sunday Times, January 23, 1916, section III, p. 4.
The Touchstone, vol. 5, no.1, New York, April 1919, pp. 4, 218, illustrated.
W. Yarrow, L. Bouche, Robert Henri: His Life and Works with Forty Reproductions, New York, 1921, pp. 9, 51, illustrated.
Literary Digest, vol. 102, August 3, 1929, p. 21, illustrated.

Exhibited

New York, MacDowell Club, November 1914.
San Diego, California, San Diego Panama-California Exposition, 1915.
Los Angeles, California, Exposition Park, 1916.
New York, Macbeth Gallery, 1919.
New York, Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., Robert Henri (1865-1929): Selected Paintings, June 11-July 18, 1986, p. 33, no. 21, illustrated.
Charlotte, North Carolina, Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts; Santa Fe, New Mexico, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum; Glen Falls, New York, The Hyde Collection, From New York to Corrymore: Robert Henri and Ireland, May 7, 2011-May 1, 2012, pp. 65-66, 142, no. 14, illustrated.

Conditions of sale

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Tylee Abbott Vice President, Head of American Art

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Lot Essay

Irish Lass is among Robert Henri's best examples of his celebrated portraits of Irish children. Indeed, the artist described this work and another Irish portrait Irish Lad (1913, Private Collection) as "pictures that I particularly like and...have variety." (as quoted in From New York to Corrymore: Robert Henri and Ireland, exhibition catalogue, Charlotte, North Carolina, 2011, p. 65)

Valerie Leeds writes, "Irish Lass and Irish Lad are also among Henri's notable child portraits of that year. Both likenesses depict this new Irish type of child, innocent yet composed—qualities that reflected Henri's perspective on children and characteristics he found compelling about them as subjects: 'If one has a love of children as human beings, and realizes the greatness that is in them, no better subjects for painting can be found. The majority of people patronize children and look down on them rather than up to them...in reality it is the children that have not yet been buried under...conventions and details which burden most grownups.'" (From New York to Corrymore: Robert Henri and Ireland, p. 65)

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