museworthy

Hope you all had a joyous, fun-filled holiday! Mine was great fun. I still have another week to go before I return to work and, as predicted, I’m experiencing an uncomfortable detachment from art modeling – the work I love. I miss it. WAAAAAAAHH! Ok, that was childish. Sorry.

But no need for me to get all twisted up and antsy. After all, I have this blog, and a nice art post should hold me over temporarily. Specifically, a nice post with an image of an exquisitely rendered nude figure. Enter Robert Henri.

What a great painter. Henri was born in Cincinnati, but ended up settling in Philadelphia. He was first cousin to Mary Cassatt, another great American artist. Henri painted a lot of life subjects, using friends, family, and people he knew as sitters, along with professional models. Always a good idea to use variety, I think. He was a member of the National Academy of Design (one of my current places of employment) and from 1915 – 1927 taught at the Art Students League in New York (one of my former places of employment). Henri was, interestingly, good friends with Emma Goldman, the famous anarchist. She even sat for a portrait once!

However, the following painting is most certainly NOT Emma Goldman. The model is Doris Trautman and I was unable to find any information about her at all. In any case, she made a lovely model for Henri’s work here, more like a nude “portrait”. His colors are amazing, and Doris has an intriguing, almost haunting, presence.