Oral workshop: About Robert Henri "Laughing Child" in 2mn!

"Those reading this post: remember this is an oral assignment"
Here we are in front of Robert Henri “Laughing Child” painted in 1907. For the little story just about a bit more than 100 years, in 1908, this painting was hung for the show entitled 8 American Painters , landmark exhibit organized by Robert Henri which at the same time, created a sensation and was a success. (In all, over 7,000 visitors attended the exhibition and about $4,000 worth of works were sold) Mrs Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney bought this painting and 3 others on view as well.
Coming back to the charismatic Robert Henri, he is a key figure in the development of American Art, for 3 reasons:
1st: he is a talented painter, trained in a classic way at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins, one of the well known portrait painter and in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and Academy Julien in Paris. He travelled several times to Europe having the opportunity to look very closely to works by masters such as Velasquez, Goya, Manet, Rembrandt and Hals. Especially those flemmish masters influenced his handling of painting and his interest of depicting scenes and people of everyday life.You can see here the monochromatic background, lacking of any details, enhancing the warm tone of the face of the child. A very strong impasto, and the importance of the laugh being highlighted by touches of red on his lips, cheecks and even ears.

Reason # 2 of being a key figure: you remember I told you he organized the show called the Eight American Painters. He was the leader of the movement first called the EIGHT, later dubbed Ashcan School. They were quite a diverse group of painters but at least 5 of them shared an interest in showing scenes of everyday life, mundane activities of working and ordinary people in urban settings and in an honest and straightforward way. Again looking at this portrait, very few details are given about this child. Robert Henri was interested in portraying the human dignity of his sitters, sociolites, family members or immigrants.

reason #3 He was also a very influential teacher. Henri opened his own school, the Henri School of Art,and he taught such artists as Patrick Henry Bruce, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, George Bellows ...and others. His book The Art Spirit, a collection of his lecture notes, criticisms, and other remarks on art is still in print today.
Henri stressed what can still be applied today:
Paint what you feel. Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you.