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Catalog Data

Creator:
Henri, Robert, 1865-1929  Search this
Names:
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts  Search this
Anshutz, Thomas Pollock, 1851-1912  Search this
Bouguereau, William Adolphe, 1825-1905  Search this
Calder, Alexander Stirling, 1870-1945  Search this
Grafly, Charles, 1862-1929  Search this
Hovenden, Thomas, 1840-1895  Search this
MacRae, Elmer Livingston, 1875-1953 -- Photographs  Search this
Parrish, Maxfield, 1870-1966 -- Photographs  Search this
Redfield, Edward Willis, 1869-1965  Search this
Sloan, John, 1871-1951  Search this
Extent:
4 Microfilm reels
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Microfilm reels
Sketchbooks
Date:
1870-1954
Scope and Contents:
The Robert Henri papers date from 1880 to 1954. included are 26 diaries, dating from 1880 to 1928. The collection also includes writings, scrapbooks, printed material, and miscellany.
Reels 885-887: 25 diaries kept by Robert Henri, August 15, 1881 to October 20, 1928 (some entries with illustrations). Henri writes about his studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and in Paris; his instructors Thomas Anshutz, Thomas Hovenden, and Adolphe Bouguereau, and fellow students Alexander Stirling Calder, Edward Redfield, Charles Grafly, and others; his opposition to the National Academy of Design and academic painting between 1902 and 1912; the exhibition of The Eight in 1908; the 1910 Exhibition of Independent Artists; the MacDowell Club; the founding of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors; and other topics. Also included are typescripts of 4 plays; scrapbooks of clippings, 1888-1954 and loose clippings; 82 photographs of Henri, including a group photo of Henri, Elmer MacRae, Maxfield Parrish, and four unidentified women, classes, and models; a letter and receipt from John Sloan; clippings regarding The Eight; and a copy of Memoirs of My Dead Life, by George Moore, annotated by Henri.
Reel 1654: Robert Henri diary, May to November 1880. Henri writes about his daily activities as a 15-year-old boy growing up on the Platte River, including entries on family events, playing with his brothers and friends, fishing, celebrating July 4th, bailing hay for his father, a dance and fair, and houses in Cozad, Nebraska (122 pages).
Biographical / Historical:
Robert Henri (1865-1929) was a painter and instructor in New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Material on reels 885-887 was lent by Mrs. Janet LeClair, the widow of John LeClair, nephew of Henri's sister-in-law, Violet Organ. Organ inherited these papers and planned on using them in a biography of Henri which was never written. The papers passed to John LeClair upon Organ's death in 1959 and subsequently donated to Yale University. Organ donated other Henri papers, including correspondence, notes, notebooks, photographs and other manuscript material to Yale University's Beinecke Library in the 1960s. The diary on reel 1654 was lent by Dr. Robert Gatewood, a cousin of Robert Henri, who reported that he had at one time possessed several of Henri's illustrated boyhood stories and other diaries which were all destroyed in a fire.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Art teachers  Search this
Painters  Search this
Topic:
Eight (Group of American artists)  Search this
Genre/Form:
Sketchbooks
Identifier:
AAA.henrrobe
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9a0c0c34a-afea-42f2-bfcc-150d7bc6a1df
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-henrrobe