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Robert Torchia, “Robert Henri/Edith Reynolds/1908,” American Paintings, 1900–1945, NGA Online Editions, https://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/43586 (accessed October 03, 2024).

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Overview

Robert Henri painted this formal full-length portrait of Edith L. Reynolds (1883–1964) at her home in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in February 1908 after he finished the pendant portraits of her neighbors George Cotton Smith and Elizabeth Virginia Laning Bradner Smith (Mrs. George Cotton Smith). Reynolds would later study under Henri at the Henri School of Art in New York. She became known in her hometown for her landscapes of the Wilkes-Barre area and was an art collector active in cultural affairs in her community.

Typical of Henri's style during this period, the artist conveyed Reynolds’s individuality by not idealizing her features. Because of its stark composition and monochromatic quality, the Reynolds portrait is closely related to the full-lengths that Henri had painted earlier in the decade, such as Lady in Black (1904, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York).

Entry

Robert Henri painted this formal full-length portrait of Edith L. Reynolds (1883–1964) at her home in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in February 1908 after he finished the pendant portraits of her neighbors George Cotton Smith and Elizabeth Virginia Laning Bradner Smith. Commissioned by Reynolds’s parents, the portrait was completed shortly after the historic exhibition of The Eight that opened at the Macbeth Gallery in New York on February 3.

The chronology of the Reynolds portrait is documented in Henri’s diary.[1] During a visit to Wilkes-Barre to work on the paintings of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Henri spent an “evening at Mr. Benj[amin] Reynolds[’s]” on January 20 and arranged “to paint daughter and wife—full length and 3/4 length.” The following day Henri wrote that he determined a fee with Mr. Reynolds, “1500 for one. 2000 for two. To begin Feb. 10.” In the meantime, Henri completed the two Smith portraits, traveling back and forth between Wilkes-Barre and New York, where he was managing the Macbeth Gallery exhibition. Henri executed the two Reynolds portraits during February and March; they were both of Edith, despite the suggestion in Henri’s diary that one portrait would be of her mother.

Edith Reynolds was born in Wilkes-Barre to a family with a long history in the area. Reynolds was proud of an ancestry that she traced to English immigrants who arrived in North America on the Mayflower.[2] Her parents were Benjamin Reynolds, president of the Miners National Bank, and Grace Goodwin Fuller Reynolds. Reynolds graduated from a women’s institute in Kingston, Pennsylvania, and attended preparatory schools in Connecticut and New York. She later studied under Henri at the Henri School of Art in New York. Reynolds became known for her paintings of the Wilkes-Barre landscape, and she exhibited with the Society of Independent Artists from 1917 to 1919 and at the Salons of America exhibition in 1922. She was active in the local Wyoming Valley Art League. Reynolds was an avid art collector who owned paintings by Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640), Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606 - 1669), Edouard Manet (French, 1832 - 1883), Winslow Homer (American, 1836 - 1910), and Henri Matisse (French, 1869 - 1954). An article in the Wilkes-Barre Record described her as “an outstanding figure in the artistic life of the valley because of her recognition of the need, not only for broader public understanding and appreciation of the fine arts, but also for standards of value in artistic expression.”[3]

Henri wrote a detailed description of the Reynolds portrait in his ledger: “176E Miss Edith Reynolds February 1908 38 × 78". Wilkesbarre, Pa., 34 River Street. Full length. Brown velvet dress, low cut V, dark brown hair and dark grey or blue grey black [possibly background]. Gold bracelets and silver clasp bracelets, small garnet. Short sleeves. Hands simply held hanging in front. Marked on back with number and portrait of Miss Reynolds by Robert Henri 1908. Father was Benjamin Reynolds.”[4]

The artist imbued the painting of twenty-five-year-old Reynolds with a subtly dramatic mood. Reynolds wears a floor-length dark brown dress that nearly dissolves into the stark black background. Her face, arms, and clasped hands stand out in relief, illuminated by the bright light that enters from the right. Her elegant figure is oriented to the left, and she has turned her head to look directly at the viewer with a somewhat reticent expression. The austere tone is relieved by the glint of her gold and silver ornamental bracelets. Typical of Henri’s style during this period, the artist conveyed Reynolds’s individuality by not idealizing her features. Reynolds wears the same dress and jewelry in the three-quarter-length portrait completed as part of the same commission [fig. 1].[5] Because of its stark, monochromatic composition, the Reynolds portrait in the National Gallery of Art is closely related to the full-lengths that Henri had painted earlier in the decade, such as Lady in Black (1904, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY). Henri’s dark palette and spare background is a nod to his lasting interest in the 17th-century Spanish painter Diego Velázquez (Spanish, 1599 - 1660), whose work Henri admired and copied in the Prado on his travels in Spain.[6]

Robert Torchia

July 24, 2024

Inscription

lower left: Robert Henri

Provenance

The sitter, Edith Lindeley Reynolds [1883-1964], Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; gift 1956 to NGA.

Associated Names

Reynolds, Edith, Miss

Exhibition History

1967
National Gallery Loan Exhibition, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1967, no. 16.
1974
Selected American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, University Center Gallery, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, 1974, no catalogue.

Technical Summary

The plain-weave fabric support is unlined and remains mounted on its original stretcher. The artist applied paint in broad, medium-rich strokes, particularly in the background, over a commercially prepared off-white ground layer. The paint is thicker and more opaque in the face and arms, with lively impasto describing the curls of the hair, jewelry, and highlights of the dress. Alterations to the composition are impossible to discern using x-radiography because of the low density of the paint. Examination using infrared reflectography reveals neither underpainting nor compositional changes. The painting is in good condition with only a couple of small losses, one in the upper left and the other in the dress. There are two short, deep scratches in the paint in the upper right. The surface was coated with a layer of natural resin varnish in 1961 over an older layer of varnish that has an orange fluorescence under ultraviolet examination.

Michael Swicklik

July 24, 2024

Bibliography

1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 66, repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 174, repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 199, repro.

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