Robert Henri

Mr. Arthur Bond Cecil, Los Angeles (acquired directly from the artist circa 1925)

Thence by descent to the present owner

Los Angeles, Museum of History Science and Art, Department of Fine and Applied Arts Exposition Park, n.d., no. 1007

The present work depicts the wife of Dr. Arthur Bond Cecil, a renowned urological surgeon in Los Angeles. Born in Millersville, Maryland in 1885, Dr. Cecil began his career in 1913 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles and later transferred to the Los Angeles County General Hospital where he worked until 1936.

In a 1921 correspondence between Robert Henri and Dr. Cecil regarding the prospective commission of this portrait, the artist established the following: "I must have the leeway as to time and sittings to make a thing that will satisfy me. I do not want to undertake a portrait unless I have every opportunity to make it as good as I can." Upon completion of the portrait circa 1925, Henri wrote to Dr. and Mrs. Cecil to express how grateful he was for their time together; they grew to become close friends and frequent correspondents.