An Imaginative Boy
Artist
Robert Henri
(American, 1865 - 1929)
Date1915
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions24 1/8 x 20 in. (61.3 x 50.8 cm)
ClassificationsOil Painting
Credit LineHarriet Russell Stanley Fund
Terms
Object number1950.04
DescriptionThanks to an erroneous notation in the files of New York's Macbeth Gallery, at least two generations of viewers have believed that the boy portrayed in this painting was an Irish child by the name of Tom Cafferty who lived in the village of Dooagh on Achill Island, one of Robert Henri's favorite painting spots, which he first visited in 1913. The artist's own "Record Books," however, clearly identifies "The Imaginative Boy" as a gypsy named Nelson whom Henri painted in Ogunquit, Maine, during the summer of 1915. Maine, like Ireland, was one of Henri's favorite summer resorts, beginning with his first trip to Monhegan Island in 1903. In the summer of 1915, however, he had been warned away from the island because of a World War I German submarine scare. Instead, he chose to visit the inland town of Ogunquit, where he initially languished, utterly bored in the absence of the colorful human subjects he preferred.
Some days into his visit, Henri discovered a band of gypsies encamped on the town's outskirts. Soon afterward, Ogunquit was treated to the sight of a steady stream of gypsies making their way to Henri's studio, "bringing their tangle haired, unkempt children" to sit for the artist. (1)
One of these gypsies was a girl with the unlikely name of Patience Serious, who is immortalized in Henri's portrayal of her (1915; Cincinnati Art Museum). Another was the more mischievious Nelson of "The Imaginative Boy", with his rumpled blue overalls and jacket (their red epaulets and sash matching the bright redness of his lips), his sparkling dark eyes, and his hands stuffed decisively in his pockets. In the space behind the child, Henri used the characteristic quickly slashed green and white notations that he favored for suggesting the coastal Maine landscape.
BWC
Bibliography:
William Yarrow and Louis Bouché, eds., "Robert Henri: His Life and Works" (New York: Boni and Liverwright, 1921); Robert Henri, "The Art Spirit", comp. Margery Ryerson (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1923; reprint, New York: Harper and Row, 1984); William Innes Homer, "Robert Henri and His Circle" (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1969); Bennard B. Perlman, "Robert Henri: Painter", exhib. cat. (Wilmington: Delaware Art Museum, 1984); Bruce W. Chambers, "Robert Henri (1865-1929): Selected Paintings", exhib. cat. (New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, 1986).
Notes:
1. Perlman, Robert Henri, p. 129.
On View
On view
![Brush, George DeForest,Nancy, the Artist's Daughter [Mrs. Robert Pearmain],1947.01](/internal/media/dispatcher/14622/thumbnail)
