Little Irish Girl by Robert Henri (1865-1929) is estimated at $70,000-100,000. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $197,000
An early 20th century painting of an Irish girl by influential artist Robert Henri (1865-1929) is among the highlights at Sotheby’s sale of American paintings, drawings and sculpture in New York on April 11. One of the organisers of the Armoury Show in 1913, Henri, who married Irish born Margaret Organ in 1908, came to Achill Island in 1913. He rented Corrymore House near Dooagh and became a regular visitor, painting the children of Dooagh every spring and summer. He finally purchased Corrymore House in 1924.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio he studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. After returning to Philadelphia in 1891 he taught at the Women’s School of Design. He believed that the work of an artist should be a social force stirring the world and became leader of the movement that became known as the Ash Can School. At the New York School of Art his students included Joseph Stella, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, George Bellows, Norman Raeben, Louis D. Fancher, and Stuart Davis. From 1915 to 1927 he was an influential teacher at the Art Students League of New York. His ideas on art were collected by former pupil Margery Ryerson and published as The Art Spirit (Philadelphia, 1923), a book which exerted a strong influence on artists on both sides of the Atlantic.