Robert Henri

Chapellier Galleries, New York
Private Collection, Minnesota
Ronnie Meyerson, Inc., Bayville, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1991

New York, Chapellier Galleries, Robert Henri, 1865 - 1929, 1976, no. 76, illustrated in the catalogue

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes, Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work is in extremely good condition. It is clean. The canvas is unlined, and the original inscription is clearly visible on the reverse. Under ultraviolet light, one can see five small retouched losses in the heaviest impasto in the green color in the center of the right side. There is one other loss here that has not been retouched. There are two small retouches in the darkest color to the left of the chin. The work can easily be hung in its current state if the small loss in the center right were retouched.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Robert Henri first visited the western coast of Ireland in 1913, where he rented the Corrymore House, located on Achill Island, outside the village of Dooagh.  Inspired and invigorated by the serene landscape and guileless nature of the local inhabitants, he developed a fresh painting style which would characterize his work from this point on.  Subsequently, Henri spent a few summers in Santa Fe, where he was similarly captivated by the unspoiled charm of the locals, but by 1924, the artist and his family were eager to return to Ireland.  Finding Corrymore for sale, the Henris purchased the house for £200 and spent their remaining summers there until the artist's death in 1928.

Henri had first turned his artistic focus to portraiture as early as 1900 (concurrent to his joining William Merritt Chase on the faculty of the New York School of Art), but, these portraits were not nearly as successful as his earlier Parisian street scenes. 

Nevertheless, he remained committed to developing a distinct style of realism which most effectively communicated the individual character of his sitters.  The children Henri encountered in the local villages in Ireland and New Mexico possessed an unconventional aesthetic beauty that proved irresistible to an artist striving to capture the purest essence of his sitters and their unaffected dispositions.

MacNamara, painted by Henri in Ireland in 1925, epitomizes both the delight the artist derived from his subject, as well as the unique and vibrant style he had developed for his portraits.  An early admirer of the seventeenth century masters, Henri had, by this point in his career, assimilated the energetic brushwork of Frans Hals and the dramatic use of light and dark shadows of Rembrandt into his own singular technique.  Selectively incorporating these devices, Henri, captured the subtle and distinctive personalities of his sitters.  MacNamara's eyes look past the viewer with a subdued calm, while his hands rest quietly in his lap. The portrait gracefully articulates the charm Henri clearly perceived in this beguiling Irish boy.

Lot 35 is illustrated as a frontispiece of this catalogue.