Volendam Street Scene
1910
Painter, American, 1865 - 1929

Volendam Street Scene, one of roughly 60 canvases Robert Henri painted during his third visit to Holland, documents rustic Dutch village life and colorful traditional costume. The rapidly executed sketch exemplifies the artist’s desire to capture momentary, spontaneous visual effects. A woman crosses the road in the center foreground, while a group of villagers go about their daily business on the right. Despite the abbreviated forms, their distinctive hats and clogs are recognizable.
Henri visited Europe during the summer of 1910, where he spent the first six weeks in Haarlem, The Netherlands. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries Haarlem and the quaint villages around it on the North Sea were frequented by many European and American painters. Volendam is a fishing hamlet north of Amsterdam on the coast of the Zuider Zee that a contemporary British travel guide called “the manufactory of most of those Dutch pictorial scenes known the world over," and recommended its "quaint alleys, its magenta-clothed fishermen, its gaily dressed girls in striped shirts and winged caps."
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 51 x 61.1 cm (20 1/16 x 24 1/16 in.)
framed: 73.7 x 83.8 x 6.4 cm (29 x 33 x 2 1/2 in.) -
Accession
1973.70.1
More About this Artwork
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
(Chapellier Galleries, New York), by 1969; Mr. [d. 1994] and Mrs. [d. 1991] Gerard C. Smith, Washington, D.C.; gift 1973 to NGA.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1969
Robert Henri: Painter-Teacher-Prophet, New York Cultural Center, 1969, no. 53, repro.
American Art Selections, Chapellier Galleries, New York, 1969, no. 24, repro.
1977
Extended loan for use by Secretary Patricia Roberts Harris, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C., 1977-1979.
1981
Extended loan for use by Justice John Paul Stevens, The Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1981-1984.
1984
Robert Henri, Painter, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art, University Park; Cincinnati Art Museum; Phoenix Art Museum; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1984-1985, no. 66, repro.
1987
Extended loan for use by Ambassador John Shad, U.S. Embassy residence, The Hague, The Netherlands, 1987-1989.
1989
Extended loan for use by Ambassador Howard Wilkins, U.S. Embassy residence, The Hague, The Netherlands, 1989-1992.
1993
Extended loan for use by Secretary Michael Espy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 1993-1995.
2005
Extended loan for use by Ambassador Craig R. Stapleton, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, France, 2005-2009.
2009
Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati; The Grand Rapids Art Museum; Singer Museum, Laren, The Netherlands, 2009-2011, no. 20, repro.
Bibliography
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 174, repro.
1981
Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981:199, repro, 202.
1984
Perlman, Bennard B. Robert Henri, Painter. Exh. cat. Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, 1984: 110-111, no. 66, color repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 200, repro.
1997
Perlman, Bennard B., ed. Revolutionaries of Realism: The Letters of John Sloan and Robert Henri. Princeton, 1997: xi, 200 fig. 28.
1998
Stott, Annette. Holland Mania: The Unknown Dutch Period in American Art & Culture, New York, 1998: 50, repro.
2009
Stott, Annette. Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914. Exh. cat. Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati; Grand Rapids Art Museum; Singer Laren Museum, The Netherlands, 2009-2011. Savannah, 2009: no. 20, 120, repro. (catalogue also published in Dutch in 2010: Dutch utopia : Amerikaanse kunstenaars in Nederland 1880-1914).
Inscriptions
by Violet Organ, lower left: ROBERT HENRI / VO
Wikidata ID
Q20191520