About Robert Henri

Robert Henri was one of the most influential artists in America in the early 1900s. He was the leader of an urban realist movement known as the Ashcan School of Art and member of the revolutionary group, The Eight. Henri believed in continuous study of art and has inspired generations of artists with his philosophy through the book, “The Art Spirit”.

Before he became Robert Henri the painter, he was Robert Henry Cozad, the “Son of the Gamblin’ Man.” As a young boy Robert spent time fishing and swimming in the Platte River, riding horses, and writing short stories. He lived in this hotel with his parents and brother; ran up and down the stairs and through the hallway that you will walk through.

Brief Chronology

June 24, 1865: Born in Spence’s Station, Ohio
1868-1872: Lives in Cozaddale, Ohio, a town founded by John J. Cozad
1874-1879: Attends school in Cincinnati and spends summers in Cozad, Nebraska.
1879: Moves permanently to Cozad after graduating from Chickering Academy.
1879-1882: Spends time writing, running his father’s hay business and fishing on the Platte River.
1882: Mr. Cozad shoots a local rancher during an argument. The man later dies.
1883: Robert and his mother sell the hotel, business and land in Cozad.
1883-1884: Robert and his family settle in Atlantic City, New Jersey under assumed names.
1885: Robert completes his first painting.
1886: Enrolls at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
1898: Marries Linda Craige and honeymoons in Paris.
1888-1891: Attends Académie Julian in Paris and studies under William Adolphe Bouguereau.
1891: Robert is admitted to École des Beaux-Arts.
1892: Begins teaching at the School of Design for Women in Philadelphia.
1899: Sells painting, “La Neige” to the Musee National du Luxembourg, Paris.

1900: Travels to Spain and copies Velazquez paintings in the Prado Museum.
1905: Linda dies after being ill for some time.
1907: Robert announces the formation of The Eight.
1908: Exhibition of The Eight at the Macbeth Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy, Art Institute of Chicago, and seven other cities through June 1909.
1908: Marries Marjorie Organ.
1909: Opens the Henri School of Art.
1917: Serves as an advisor for the new museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1923: The Art Spirit is published.
1925-1928: Spends summers in Ireland.
1929: Selected as one of the top three living American artists in a poll by the Arts Council of New York.
July 12, 1929: Dies of cancer at St. Luke’s Hospital, New York City.
1931: Robert Henri Memorial Exhibition begins at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Henri’s Influence

"Perhaps one of the most interesting stories in one of the most inspiring places you will visit in the United States"
Shaun M. Johnson, Web Designer
“Through all the years of his life Henri projected in his teaching the fire of his own enthusiasm. He could paint, but he could also talk about painting. He could make live for those who crowded eagerly around him the fundamentals of palette and brush. He became a cult, yet stimulated his followers to individuality. It was what they had within them to say that interested him, not what he may have given them.”
Dorothy Grafly
“Henri was such an heroic figure, an emancipator. He had the gift of awakening confidence, and the honesty to attack corruption.”
Helen Farr Sloan
“Robert Henri was a great teacher. A man with enormous personal magnetism. He was probably the greatest single influence in American art. If one concedes the controversial existence of an American school–then Henri founded it. His teaching was not merely a case of passing on to his pupils such technical facts as he believed were essential to a painter’s equipment, it embodied a philosophy of life as well whose basic tenets were humanity and liberalism. Their observance paved the way for the independent idea in this country and the acceptance of modern art.”
Helen Appleton Read