Robert Henri Robert Henri , by Gertrude Kasebier ( 1900 ) Snow in New York 1902 , oil on canvas National Gallery of Art , Washington , DC Portrait of Fay Bainter , 1918 Robert Henri ( June 25 , 1865 - July 12 , 1929 ) was an American painter notable for his teaching and leadership of the Ashcan School movement in art . Early life He was born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati , Ohio to Theresa Gatewood Cozad of Malden , Virginia and John Jackson Cozad , a gambler and real estate developer . He had a brother , Johnny . In 1871 , their father founded the town of Cozaddale , Ohio . In 1873 , the family moved west to Nebraska , where they founded the town of Cozad . In October 1882 , Henri 's father got in a dispute with a rancher , Alfred Pearson , over the right to pasture cattle on land claimed by the family . When the dispute turned physical , Cozad shot Pearson fatally with a pistol . Cozad was eventually cleared of wrongdoing , but the mood of the town turned against him . He fled to Denver , Colorado , and the rest of the family followed shortly. ( ) In order to disassociate themselves from the scandal , family members changed their names . The father became known as Richard Henry Lee , and his sons posed as adopted children under the names Frank Southern and Robert Earl Henri ( pronounced to rhyme with `` buckeye '' ) . In 1883 , the family moved to New York City , then to Atlantic City , New Jersey , where the young artist completed his first paintings . Education In 1886 , Henri enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia , where he studied under Thomas Anshutz . In 1888 , he traveled to Paris to study at the Académie Julian , where he studied under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and embraced Impressionism . With time , he was admitted into the École des Beaux Arts . He visited Brittany and Italy during this period . By the end of 1891 , he returned to Philadelphia , studying under Robert Vonnoh at the Academy . In 1892 , he began teaching at the Philadephia School of Design for Women . Work In Philadelphia , Henri began to attract a group of followers who met in his studio to discuss art and culture , including several illustrators for the Philadelphia Press newspaper who would become known as the `` Philadelphia Four '' : William Glackens , George Luks , Everett Shinn , and John French Sloan . The gatherings became known as the `` Charcoal Club '' , featuring life drawing and readings in the social philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson , Walt Whitman , Émile Zola , and Henry David Thoreau . By 1895 , Henri had come to reconsider Impressionism , calling it a `` new academicism . `` For several years , he divided his time between Philadelphia and Paris , where he met the Canadian artist James Wilson Morrice . Morrice introduced Henri to the practice of painting pochades on tiny wood panels that could be carried in a coat pocket along with a minimal kit of brushes and oil . This facilitated the kind of spontaneous depictions of urban scenes which would come to be associated with his mature style . In 1898 he married Linda Craige , a student from his private art class . The couple spent the next two years on an extended honeymoon in France , during which time the French government purchased his painting , La Neige ( `` The Snow '' ) , to be displayed in the Musée du Luxembourg . He began teaching at the New York School of Art in 1902 , where his students included Edward Hopper , Rockwell Kent , George Bellows , and Stuart Davis . In 1905 , Henri 's wife Linda , long in poor health , died . In 1906 , he was elected to the National Academy of Design , but when painters in his circle were rejected for the Academy 's 1907 exhibition , he accused fellow jurors of bias and walked off the jury , resolving to organize a show of his own . He would later refer to the Academy as `` a cemetery of art . `` In February 1908 , Henri organized a landmark show entitled `` The Eight `` ( after the eight painters displaying their works ) at the Macbeth Gallery in New York . Besides his own works and those produced by the `` Philadelphia Four '' ( who had followed Henri to New York by this time ) , there were paintings by Maurice Prendergast , Ernest Lawson , and Arthur B. Davies . These painters and this exhibition would become associated with the Ashcan School , although the content of the show was diverse and that term was not coined until 1934 . In May 1908 , he married 22-year old Irish-born Marjorie Organ . In 1910 , Henri organized the `` Exhibition of Independent Artists , `` a no-jury , no-prize show modeled after the Salon des Independants in France . Works were hung alphabetically to emphasize the egalitarian philosophy . Walt Kuhn , who took part in this show , would come to play a key role in the 1913 Armory Show . Henri admired anarchist and Mother Earth publisher Emma Goldman , and taught from 1911 at the Modern School . Goldman , who later sat for a portrait by Henri , described him as `` an anarchist in his conception of art and its relation to life. '' ( ) His ideas on art were collected by former pupil Margery Ryerson and published as The Art Spirit ( Philadelphia , 1923 ) . Quotations `` It is harder to see than it is to express . The whole value of art rests in the artist 's ability to see well into what is before him . `` `` Art cannot be separated from life . It is the expression of the greatest need of which life is capable , and we value art not because of the skilled product , but because of its revelation of a life 's experience . `` `` Paint what you feel . Paint what you see . Paint what is real to you . `` External links Works by Robert Henri at the Athenaeum References `` Robert Henri and his Influence '' ( Minnesota Museum of Fine Art ) Robert Henri biography at the `` Artchive '' `` About Robert Henri '' ( R.H. Love Galleries ) Bibliography Robert Henri The Art Spirit . Philadelphia , 1923 . ISBN 0-06-430138-9 ( 1984 paperback reprint ) William Innes Homer . Robert Henri and his Circle . Ithaca , Cornell University Press , 1969 . ISBN 0-87817-326-9 ( 1988 hardcover reprint ) Jessica F. Nicoll . The allure of the Maine coast  : Robert Henri and his circle , 1903-1918 . Portland , Maine : Portland Museum of Art , 1995 . ISBN 0-916857-07-7 Bennard B. Perlman . Robert Henri : His Life and Art . Dover Publications , 1991 . ISBN 0-486-26722-9 Categories : 1865 births | 1929 deaths | American painters | People from Nebraska | People from Cincinnati | Portrait artists In other languages : Deutsch | Italiano 