Young Woman in White

1904

Robert Henri

Painter, American, 1865 - 1929

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Painted in a single day, Young Woman in White represents one of Robert Henri’s favorite professional models, the Czech-born Eugenie Stein. Henri is justly noted for the life-size, grand manner studio portraits of women, like this one, that he often sent to exhibitions to demonstrate his command of the full-length format. As its title suggests, this image is a monochromatic tonal study in the tradition of a painting that Henri greatly admired: James McNeil Whistler's Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl. As in Whistler’s complex early works, Henri sought to balance his aesthetic inclinations with an attention to certain less idealized realities of his sitter’s appearance. He did not intend his portraits to be simple, literal likenesses of specific individuals. Instead, he used them to explore abstract qualities he described as "another dimension—that fascinating fourth if you like—which has to do with your concept of the significance of the whole—that ultra something which always engages your interest more than mere facts of the person standing before you." His realist tendencies, while sometimes difficult for 21st-century viewers to ascertain, were duly noted by critics, one of whom described another of Henri’s portraits of Stein as representing “that grand dame of the disreputable with her toothless, sunken jaw, her leery eyes, her great befeathered hat, flamboyant dress, and brown kid gloves.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Violet Organ

  • Dimensions

    overall: 198.8 x 96.8 cm (78 1/4 x 38 1/8 in.)
    framed: 218.5 x 116.8 cm (86 x 46 in.)

  • Accession

    1949.9.1

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: Young Woman in White, 1904

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1865-1929]; by inheritance to his wife, Marjorie Organ Henri [1886-1930], New York; the Henri estate; Marjorie's sister and the artist's sister-in-law, Violet Organ [d. 1959], New York, by 1937;[1] gift 1949 to NGA.
[1] The painting was identified as being lent by Miss Organ in the catalogue of a 1937 exhibition in New York. Prior to that the painting was listed as being lent by either Marjorie Henri's estate or the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Henri.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1904

  • An Exhibition of Portraits, The Union League Club, New York, 1904, no. 16, as Woman in White.

1931

  • Memorial Exhibition of the Work of Robert Henri, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March-April 1931, no. 23, repro., as Young Woman in White--Profile.

  • Robert Henri Memorial Exhibition, Baltimore Museum of Art, May 1931, no. 16, repro.

1932

  • Entering the Twentieth Century: Oils, Watercolors, Drawings, Springfield Art Museum, Massachusetts; Howard Young Galleries, New York, October 1932, no. 24.

  • Memorial Exhibition of the Work of Robert Henri, Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, January 1932, no catalogue.

1933

  • Memorial Exhibition, Philadelphia Art Alliance, 1933. [According to the Artist's Record Book, added after his death]

1936

  • Carson-Pirie-Scott Galleries, Chicago, 1936. [According to the Artist's Record Book, added after his death]

1937

  • New York Realists 1900-1914, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1937, no. 30, repro., as Young Woman in White--Profile.

1939

  • Robert Henri Today, Fifth Avenue Galleries of Grand Central Art Galleries, Inc., New York, 1939, no. 3.

1940

  • Survey of American Painting, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1940, no. 217, as Young Woman in White--Profile.

1946

  • American Painting from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, Tate Gallery, London, 1946, no. 102.

1951

  • The 75th Anniversary Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by 75 Artists Associated with the Art Students League of New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1951, no. 21, repro.

1955

  • The One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1955, no. 106, repro.

1965

  • Robert Henri 1865-1929-1965: An exhibition held in observance of the centennial of the artist's birth, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1965, no. 25.

1969

  • Robert Henri: Painter-Teacher-Prophet, New York Cultural Center, 1969, addenda no. 1, repro.

1982

  • Japanese Artists Who Studied in U.S.A. and The American Scene, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 1982, no. 63, repro.

1984

  • Robert Henri, Painter, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; Pennsylvania State Univ. Museum of Art, University Park; Cincinnati Art Museum; Phoenix Art Museum; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1984-1985, no. 44, repro.

Bibliography

1931

  • Read, Helen Appleton. Robert Henri. American Artist Series, Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1931: 44-45, repro.

1932

  • "The Art Market," Parnassus 4, no. 5 (October 1932): 13, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 328, repro.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 66, repro.

1975

  • Scott, David W. John Sloan. New York, 1975: 33-34, repro.

1980

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: no. 48, color repro.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 175, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: repro. 198, 201, 202.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 561, no. 854, color repro.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 154, no. 54, color repro.

  • Homer, William Innes. Robert Henri and His Circle. Ithaca, 1969; rev. ed, New York, 1988: 238, fig. 52.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 199, repro.

1994

  • Leeds, Valerie Ann. My People: The Portraits of Robert Henri. Exh. cat. Orlando Museum of Art; Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale; Columbus Museum, GA, 1994-1995. Orlando and Seattle, 1994: 21, fig. 2.

  • Weinberg, H. Barbara, Doreen Bolger, and David Park Curry. American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York, 1994: 265.

1997

  • Perlman, Bennard B., ed. Revolutionaries of Realism: The Letters of John Sloan and Robert Henri. Princeton, 1997: ix, fig. 39.

Inscriptions

lower left: Robert Henri; upper left reverse: 19 / C; on both left and right tacking margins: STEIN PROFILE

Wikidata ID

Q20190914

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